Jacob Clark, a resident of Massachusetts, was called for
jury duty. Confused by the summons, he
first sought advice from his grandmother who told him it was a good excuse to
get out of school for the day. That’s
right: school. It seems that someone entered his birthday as
1982 instead of 2002. Jacob, my friends,
is only nine years old.
I’ll say it again:
Nine. He’s not even a
double-digits kid yet. Fortunately,
when his dad called to excuse him, the courts did so without too much of a
fight.
I served on a jury once.
It was a case involving two former students of mine; and, after
admitting our former relationship, both attorneys concluded I’d be a good fit
for their jury. That’s how hard it is to
get excused!
I thought long and hard about my time on the jury. It was a simple insurance dispute - as if those exist in our court systems.
Testimony lasted a day and a half, including the testimony from the
expert who was paid $450 an hour to testify that this accident could or could
not have caused such an injury as the defendant was claiming.
Eventually, the judge woke up long enough to read our
instructions to us, and we were escorted to the deliberation room. We then preceded to spend two hours debating
what would be “fair” and “right” in our judgement. We returned to the courtroom and delivered
our verdict. We were thanked and then
excused. Honestly, it was a great look at
our judicial system. It’s not at all
like Law and Order, my friends!
As I read about Jacob’s call to duty and his subsequent
excuse, I couldn’t help but think that maybe we’ve got it all wrong. It was just six months ago, that I had a
9-year-old in the house and in a little over six months, I’ll have another
9-year-old under my roof. I can attest
to the fact – as I’m sure every 9-year-old’s mother and father and anyone who’s
ever met one can agree: There’s nothing more important to a 9-year old and his
peers than fairness and justice.
Hand to God, I’ve never in my whole entire life heard,
“That’s not fair!” more from the mouth of my own 9-year-old than I had heard in
all the 40 years BEFORE she turned nine.
“Empty the dishwasher?
That’s not fair!”
“Help my sister? No
one helped me! That’s not fair!”
“Clean my room?
That’s not fair!”
“Go to bed? Now? That’s not fair!”
Clearly, 9-year-olds have a solid grasp on what’s fair and
what’s not. And, according to my
former-9-year-old, I – as an adult – have no clue as to what fair is.
I actually think allowing pre-hormonal “tweens” may actually
be a deterrent to crime. I know that if my guilt or innocence were to be determined by one of these little
fairness creatures, I’d certainly think twice before I did anything illegal,
wrong, immoral, questionable or anything that had nothing to do with iCarly.
So, Jacob: I know that you’ve been excused, but I’m really
sorry about that. It’s not fair that you
weren’t made to serve just like the rest of us who are not as fluent in “fair”
as you and your peers.
