Quote of the Week...from Woody Allen

Life is a tragedy filled with suffering and despair and yet some people do manage to avoid jury duty.
                                                                       ---Woody Allen

I'd like to add this line to the above quote by the famed comedic actor and filmmaker: "...but I'm not one of them".  The twisted folks over at the courthouse must love me, because they can't get enough of calling me in to jury duty.  I often ask others around me about their own experiences with this, and it stuns me how many of them have never received a jury summons.  Yet in the not-so-distant past I've been nabbed four times...and got stuck on a jury in three of them, including this week when I sat in on a very serious five-count trial against someone accused of attempted sexual battery and robbery, among other charges.  Well, that somber experience is over for me with yesterday's verdict (no point in going into any detail about it)...the good judge guaranteed to us intrepid jurors that we're now exempt for a whole year from once again having our lives disrupted and compelled by the state to attend to this duty, under threat of prosecution should we refuse.  Whoopee...I understand that once I turn seventy I'll have a choice to decline jury duty, but that's more than eight years off in the future and a number of potential jury summons still stand between now and then.  I'm of the "conviction" that compulsory jury service...well... it simply should not be compulsory.  The state could institute a policy whereby by default a citizen could still be summoned at random from the pool to serve on a jury while those who are averse to it could go to the trouble to sign up for automatic exemption, a process that they would be forced to renew every year or two...or else go back into the jury pool. I think this would leave the potential jury pool viable and large enough, much in the same way most people don't use the no-call list but those who do have to proactively take the necessary action to apply for that status.  Just a suggestion, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for some political bigshot to adopt and champion it.  Guess I'll just have to be content with the sad fact that I was born to be a juror...

Regarding this past week's jury experience, I found all the employees there (entrance security, bailiffs, lawyers, clerks, judges) to be courteous, patient, and accommodating...sadly, that hasn't always been the case in the past.  The other six jurors I ended up empaneled with were also a welcome departure from my past "trials".  These people were thoughtful, attentive, very courteous, and friendly, and if they were in a hurry during deliberations to arrive at a quick verdict none of them gave any such indication...every argument in the case was methodically reviewed as each count against the defendant was weighed according to the law as the judge had provided us.  I applaud my fellow jurors for this...but after it was over, of course, we all left the building and each others' lives...I'll probably see one or two of them around from time to time in the future and wonder why they seem familiar...

Finally, a note about Woody Allen.  I liked him in Sleeper and he was okay in Annie Hall, but surprisingly when I looked at his filmography it turns out that these are the only two movies of his I've seen in their entirety! I think one of the reasons for this is that he seemed to have built up a kind of cult status among highbrow movie critics and I'm more into entertainment than "art" in cinema...not to say that some of my favorite films don't merit "art" status.  Allen also has gone through some serious relational problems that created some scandal and bad publicity for him more recently...not knowing the facts in detail, I make no judgment one way or another.  So I'm not placing Woody Allen on any kind of role model pedestal by presenting his quote (which I found on the A-Z Quotes website)...no, I used it because it is thoroughly hilarious and fits my take on jury duty to a T...