Day: September 25, 2017

My Civic Duty

Fandango7 Comments

0EBCA7DA-6E1E-4F0D-A33B-12E54C8B6BD0For the third time since I officially became a resident of my fair city four years ago, I have been summoned to jury duty. Three times in four years!

Since I reached the age of majority five decades ago, I have been called for jury duty six times. That’s three times in the first four-and-a-half decades and three times in the last half decade.

I can only conclude that my city is either unusually crime ridden or there is a dearth of qualified jury pool candidates in town.

The way it works here is that you are “on-call” for a week. You are supposed to check the superior court website each night to see if your group is required to show up at the courthouse the following morning.

The first time I got the call, my group was never called, so I got off without having to make the trek to the courthouse. The second time, my group did get called and I was tapped to be on a jury. But during the voir dire process, when the attorneys get to ask prospective jurors questions, I was dismissed. I think it may have been because I told the defense attorney that I supported the death penalty for misdemeanors.

But as they say, the third time’s the charm. I have a feeling that this go-round I will be a member of an impaneled jury.

So I suppose I have to just accept the fact that I need to do my civic duty. I just hope the death penalty is on the table.

The Daily Planet

Fandango8 Comments

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When I first saw today’s one-word prompt, “planet,” I was going to write a serious post about how climate change is destroying our planet.

I was going to lament about how the Republicans, who are now the majority in our Congress, who occupy the White House, and who are packing our judicial system with conservative judges, are a bunch of anti-science climate change deniers who don’t give two shits about what kind of planet we pass on to our descendants.

I was going to be critical of our ignoramus president, who thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax, who is pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, and who is more concerned with what pro athletes do during the playing of our national anthem at sporting events than with the future viability of our planet to sustain human life.

But instead, I decided to harken back to my youth and recall that “The Daily Planet” was the name of the newspaper that Clark Kent (Superman), Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White worked at in the original 1950s TV series, “The Adventures of Superman.”

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