who wants a jury? . . . civic duty
Posted on January 25, 2007 - Filed Under general
i’m listening to a podcast of last weeks “on the media,” the npr program. they’re talking about the scooter libby case and how hard it was to find a jury. it’s hard because it’s so political and it was at the fore front of the news for so long. and that got me thinking. how good is a jury that knows nothing. i mean, yeah we want unbiased people. but do we really want the kind of people who don’t know anything about what’s going on in the world? how do we find unbiased people for juries without stacking them with the kinds of people that don’t know much about anything. i’m not sure i’d want to have a jury that can’t even be bothered to watch/read/listen to the news deciding my fate.
which brings me to my second point. in the words of a friend of mine, “it’s your civic duty to know what’s going on”. there are many many ways to get the news. you’ve got tv, radio, news papers, the internet, magazines, random people on the street. there’s no shortage. there are a lot of things going on in this country and in the world and since we live in a democracy it’s our civic duty to know at least a little about it. why? well it’s our duty to vote and help run this country. like it or not, the way that this country behaves really affects much of the world. therefore, since we’re responsible in this democracy, we’re responsible to much of the world. that means, knowing enough about what’s going on that you can form an opinion and make your mark when it comes time.
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