Travel Blog

I reported for jury duty this morning at 7:45. There was a large crowd, and around 9 o'clock a woman read an enticingly long list of names of people who were excused. Three times she said "Thomas," sending my hopes soaring, but quickly followed each one with a distressingly inopportune surname.

I sat correcting papers for tonight's class. A few people read; most sat staring into space (until the movie started; you can take Americans away from their work but not from their video screens).

Around 10:30 my judge's name was called, and the motley of potential jurors gathered by the American flag. People reporting for jury duty, while not exactly resembling criminals, do make me think of the line from Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Goal: "I never saw a man who looked so wistfully at the day."

We were led out a door and asked to stand in the corridor (where a man addressed us). Then we were led upstairs and asked to sit in the corridor (where a woman addressed us). Finally, we were marched into the courtroom (where the judge addressed us). She said that the case could not be tried today and that we should come back tomorrow afternoon. It was now 11 o'clock, over three hours since I had arrived.

Jury duty gives Americans the opportunity to experience firsthand not only in the judicial process but government waste and inefficiency.