I'm a good Citizen.  I vote, I pay my taxes and don't bitch about it, I obey the laws, I work in the public sector for an important cause, I follow the speed limits (+ or - 5mph), I turn off lights in rooms when I leave, etc.  I do all that stuff.  

But I get a jury summons and I become the most whiny petulant brat on earth.  I curse when I open the mail and find that pink ( ! ) and white postcard, and then I grouse and complain about the misfortune that has befallen me and you would think that I had been drafted to serve in some foreign war that will never be won.  The democratic process is very important and I believe in it and everything, but I don't personally want anything to do with it.  The idea of being asked a bunch of questions by lawyers in front of a room full of strangers fills me with dread.

I got called last year and was one of only a handful of people who didn't get questioned by the attorneys, and so I never even got to tell them that I knew six of the ten witnesses to be called and that I worked for the very agency prosecuting the bad guy.  The time before that, there were like a zillion people in the jury pool because it was a HUGE trial for some guy who not only murdered a woman he knew, while he was in jail he and another inmate (who killed TWO people) attacked a young deputy and nearly killed him.  I lucked out in that trial because it was a capital murder case, and people who are against the death penalty in every circumstance are barred from serving on that kind of a jury.  Who knew my Amnesty International membership card would come in handy?

I have to call the courthouse after 5:00 pm today and find out if my group needs to report tomorrow.  I suspect I'm not going to get off the hook and this time tomorrow I will be sitting in a courtroom.