Musings – on the editor's mind

A wonderful thing happened to our neighbor and the Weekly News proofreader, Eileen Engelstad, last week, though she did not realize it until after the fact. She had to skip her Nov. 30 work shift, called to superior court in Mount Vernon for jury duty. Oh my god. How much fun is that? How stuck was she?

Read her column on the right side of the page and find out how much she learned about citizenship and democracy and how we are all in this together. Yes, the people you are in the grocery store with might be your fellow jurors or judging you if your car slips horrifically off the road in absolutely the wrong way and place and runs into someone. Or who knows what the case may be.

But whether you ever are on either side of a jury box railing in a courtroom, please read Eileen’s article and pause and reflect about being a citizen and the opportunities you have to think and discuss and decide and affect a fellow citizen’s life.

Our society is not very democratic, with a small “d.” We might be clever debaters and get good lines in at the bar or at the neighbor’s Sunday while watching football or gathering with family for the holidays. But look around and count on your ten fingers and ten toes the number of times you are called upon to debate and jointly decide the future of an issue or judge a person’s actions. Consider: The jury only finishes its job when everyone agrees to and shares in the decision to convict or acquit.

Being on a committee at work or church or the softball team is not the same. This trial by jury thing – think about it, a jury of your peers. That could be the bank president, but more likely the bank teller. It could be the store owner, but there are a lot more clerks on the floor. But it is not a matter of status or power. In a jury, everyone gets an equal say. The lawyer and doctor might be smoother talkers, but they only get one vote and if their fellow jury members assert their authority, they can tell the guys in suits that they are not in charge, that this is a group of equals and each has the same weight and that one vote.

Juries might be the oddest thing about American democracy. I am so glad Eileen was called, that she went, that she paid attention, was affected by her experience and had the willingness to share her reflections. And if I ever do something so stupid and so bad that I end up in court and before a judge, I will ask for a jury trial and hope someone like Eileen gets chosen from the jury pool to hear my case.