You can guess my reaction. I did not want to go. Who does? Unless you are like my Mom who would tell me she liked jury duty, saying she thought it would be fun if she were ever chosen. She told me one time that she would go to jury duty, and actually tell them that she wanted to be chosen, but they never did. I told her she should probably try NOT bringing her kids with her, as this is could be part of the reason they deemed her unqualified. LOL
Anyway, at first, the day I got the summons in the mail, I geared myself up accepting the fact that I would have to go to jury duty the following Monday and didn't think more about it. Until the day before, I was really not wanting to spend the day at a place that represented the government system that I do not believe in, so I call the number to see if I have to show up the next morning and sure enough, I was not excused.
So, not wanting to go, for many reasons, I did a little research. I read lots of different stories from different forums and bloggers, saying go or you'll be arrested, you have to go it's the law, while others said they didn't go and nothing happened, etc. The one that stood out to me as most realistic to what would happen if I didn't go, was one person's story in particular. He didn't show up for jury duty, didn't have a reason other than that he just didn't want to go and about a month later, he said he got another summons in the mail. Nothing negative, just another jury summons.
I wake up in the morning, and frankly, I truly felt it was against my personal convictions to adhere to the commands of an authority that practices in a deceptive way, so for personal reasons, I didn't go. Alert the media, call in the jury duty police, this woman did not show up for jury duty.
Now, ironically enough, it has been now almost exactly one month after playing hooky from jury duty, and low and behold, what was in my mailbox? A letter from the Jury Commissioner's Office. So I'm thinking either I'm in big trouble, or this is another summons just like that guy said happened to him.
It was neither. I snapped a quick pic of what it says:
So, then tell me to choose ANY Monday within the next 90 days excluding holidays that is convenient for me to report for duty. The words "report for duty" was unsettling, making me feel like I was a soldier in the military and I wasn't informed of ever being enlisted. Didn't like that one bit.
So as I read the rest of the letter, it goes on to say that if I meet one of the standards under the "Disqualification" section, or to request dismissal from duty, I just need to fill out the form on the back and mail it to the courthouse.
Pretty simple and by doing this, the ball in their court (no pun intended, but recognized) ;) because they will have to contact me if they deny my request or in the case that I do not qualify for jury duty. From what I see as a trend in our the higher up authorities and also in people who go to work every day, in general, no one wants to have to do any extra work, nor do they want to have to call someone who will most likely be pissed because of what I would be calling to tell them.
So, as of this very moment, I think I am going to research the California "Disqualification" standards and all that before filling out this paper, and then once I know more about it, I'll probably fill it out accordingly, and leave it up to them to have to contact me and get me to participate in the game...
Don't take my word for it, nor base any of your future decisions based solely on my experience alone, decide for yourself, research this stuff on your own. Take from my story what resonates with you, if any of it does, and dump the rest.
Trust your gut, not someone else's.
to be continued....
“figure things out for yourself, especially when you are told something has already been figured out. Don't trust the accepted facts as true, until you do your research on it, and validate it on your own."
