Agape in Action

By Karen Topakian

In a 24-hour period this week, I experienced the double whammy of democracy. I voted and was called for jury duty. Two activities at the cornerstone of our society. And I had no one to blame or credit but myself. I picked this week to serve knowing it included a federal election.

On Monday, the day before my jury duty was to begin, I made my way in the late afternoon through the wind and rain to San Francisco City Hall to vote. Not sure of how much of Election Day would include time served in a courtroom, I couldn’t take any chances. Not this time. For two and half hours I joined the snaking line of men and women of all ages and races anxious to have our say. No one asked to jump the line, demand special treatment or even request a chair. At one point, when there was no end in sight to the line, an African-American woman looked at me, smiled and said, “I’m happy to be here.” She was right.

At 7:30 p.m. I proudly affixed my “I voted” sticker to my black jacket and walked outside into the damp darkness.

The next morning, while sitting in the packed courtroom listening to my fellow jurors answer the judges entertaining and probing questions, I realized what a gift it is to directly participate in our government.

Since we only have three branches and most of us will never be elected to public office, we don’t have too many ways to play a role in our own governance. When we vote, we empower others to make decisions on our behalf with our best interest at heart, hopefully.

The only other times we can play a role is when we protest a government action or inaction, testify at a government hearing or write to our elected officials. Then we are relying on the kindness of strangers to hear our voices and act. Though we have the right to petition our government they don’t have the requirement to listen and act.

But when we serve on a jury we are the ones making the decisions. For people who trust us to be impartial, fair and honest. It’s the least we can do. It’s what we would want for ourselves. And twice I have relied on the wisdom and common sense of jurors to hear my case when I committed civil disobedience to protest nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be impaneled on Election Day. The trial was scheduled to go for more than two weeks. Travel plans to a Greenpeace Board meeting wouldn’t allow it. I actually felt badly that I couldn’t serve so I gladly postponed it until the day after Washington’s Birthday in Feb of 2009.

Next time you get called for jury duty, remember we all need to play our part in taking ownership of the change we’d like to see.

Tags: Add new tag, Democracy, election, jury duty

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Anti-War, Democracy, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.