Jury duty sucks

[musette_sf]

Does anybody *like* jury duty? If so please explain! (I'm afraid the shiny happy Superior Court juror video they showed us just wasn't very convincing...)

I just got home from Day 2 of jury duty. I have to say that at least this particular court is starting to get it right -- you only have to be there for three hours a day. But it still feels like conscription to me. If I had time on my hands, I suppose this Jury Duty Lite thing might not be so bad. But I'm a IT project manager on some really, um, "aggressive" (translation: "complete fantasy") timelines, so I am doing my real job full time too.

So anyway, here is my pet peeve observed today in voir dire: people who are citizens, and have lived here for 20+ years, who claim to not speak English well enough to serve. We had three today.

We should not have marginalized citizens who cannot participate in the judicial and democratic systems! Shouldn't we demand more from people who want to become citizens? Or is this just a result of the creeping imperialism oozing forth from Bu$hCo, where we'll hand out things like "guest status" like Pez, regardless of whether you can speak the language of the land well enough to participate?

If you want to flame, flame away, but I am first generation American, and I see no reason why a person who aspires to be a US citizen should not be required to understand English to a degree sufficient to participate.