Jury Duty

I had to report yesterday for jury duty. After signing in and being sworn in half a dozen times, (really, isn't once enough?) we all recieved an orientation on how it would work, who the court officials were, and what it ment to be a juror. It was all kind of interesting.

I knew from a few days before when I had called the courthouse that they were calling 450 people. I had been warned to show up early or I wouldn't have a seat. I took her advice seriously and boy am I glad I did. Out of 450 only a little over 100 people showed up. If you say that 100 people were excused, (and that is being genorous because they are pretty strict about who can be excused,) that would mean that over 200 people chose not to show up. If they had I'm not sure how they would have all fit into the room.

I was in group B so I should have been sent home after the orrientation but because there were two cases that day and not enough people in group A to cover both trials my group was held over for one of the cases. Twenty-three names were picked at random to start with. As it happened the lawers were happy enough with the initial selection that I didn't have to serve that day and was released after the lawers anounced that they were pleased with the present panel.

What I don't understand is why certain people were alowed to stay on the pannel. I was sure that two and possably four of the 23 initial pannel would be released. It was a burglary trial and two of the people said that they had been burglarized in the past and didn't feel that they could be impatial. Were the defendant was concerned. I can understand why the D. A. was okay with that; it made his job easier. Why though would the Defense Attorny allow that to happen? I don't know about you but if I was on trial for burglary I wouldn't be too happy with that. Maybe in the end I'll be allowed to ask someone.

This is a learning experiance not only for me but for my children as well. They asked all kinds of questions when I came home. We talked about the responsability of citizens, how we would want the best chance possible if we were on trial, and how the court system worked. It makes me feel a little better because, though we made it through the school day ok yesterday, I can see where this will cause us to fall behind some. On the other had being a homeschooling parent is a valid excuse for avoiding jury duty, so learning experience or not, we'll deal with it.

The last case on the docket while I'm on jury duty is a murder case that starts on March 12th. I have mixed feelings about that one. On one hand I would like to experiance a trial like that to see our justice system in action. On the other hand, in Oklahoma not only does the jury decide guilt or innocence, they also decide on sentencing. To hold a man's life in my hands is a fearful responcability. It's not one I would enjoy acting upon.

It may be much todo about nothing. There are two groups and that trial may fall in the responsability of Group A. Not only that but, as proven yesterday, even if it is my group's trial, just because I'm in Group B doesn't mean that I will be picked to be on that case. Around here, most people picked for jury duty never even have to sit a trial. As Christ says "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Atheist Philosophy Instructors And Other Scary Thoughts

My son came home to inform me that his Philosophy instructor at college is an atheist. Now if he chooses to be an atheist, that saddens me but that is his choice. My problem is this; he is instructing my son and is going out of his way to prove that faith in God is silly superstition and a dead or dieing way of life. I asked my son if he had the knowledge and faith to handle this man. He said yes but I can't help but worry.

I don't really understand what colleges are thinking. If I were an instructor and tried to foster my faith on students as he is trying to push his on my son, I would be fired. It's one thing to say "These are my beliefs", It's another intirely to say "If you don't believe the way I do, your stupid." On the other hand, my son has reached an age where he has to stand more and more alone. At this point he either 0wns his faith or he walks away from it. I have spent a lot of years and a fair amount of prayer trying to see to it that he has the tools he needs to understand faith and hang on to it. but now it's his turn to put what he has been taught to use. He either believes or he doesn't. He can't just parrot back what he thinks I want to hear.

Do I think really that he doesn't really own his faith? No, I truly believe that he believes. That said the only one who truely knows a person's heart, other than that person, is God Himself. Today's Sunday School lesson contained the verse "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose his soul." I don't want one of my children, in an atempt to gain a good grade or the positive oppinion of a professor give up the really important things in life.

These are the thoughts that give mothers gray hairs.

The Ice Storm Melteth

Well we have heat and electricity again. Actually we are very blessed. I have a friend who is outside of town on the other side and she still doesn't have electricity; she hasn't had since Friday. This is better than the tornado though in that we could put food outside to keep it cold. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping the animals out of it. We have a opposum and a skunk that live here that probably eats as much cat food as the outside cat does.

I know cold is relative and that 10 degrees doesn't seem bad to people living in Maine or Canada, but around here when all you have to heat the house is a little, bitty fire place that is cold. We were all huddled in the living room under covers during the night. I stayed up most of the night stoking the fire. It was still cold. The first night wasn't too bad because the house still held a lot of heat. The next night was awful.

Added to that was that, with no electricity, there was no water. They finally have the water going but they say not to count on it staying on. We are under a boil order and no one can say how long it is going to last. The Red Cross has brought in bottled water for drinking which is good but habit has me going to the faucet. I actually went as far as taking a sip of it today before I remembered, now my youngest is worried that I'm going to get sick and die.

We have lost almost all our trees. A friend said that our place looks like a war zone, the sad part is that she's right. It's breaking my heart. My husband says the only bright spot is that he can finally cut down the Mammosa Tree. He has always hated it now there is nothing left but the trunk. The other trees he's not so happy about. We had a huge Oak tree that he particularly liked and he keeps telling me "If we cut the breaks off clean and tar them maybe we can save it." The sap is down so maybe he's right.

In closing, more cold and ice and snow are on the way. My husband has picked up a Kerosene heater and some Kerosene just in case. We have decided to definately put an insert in the fireplace to make it more efficient but that will have to wait until tax time. The next thing we are going to do after that is get a generator. We had thought about doing it after the tornado and decided that that was silly. After all how many disasters can happen in a year right? Boy were we wrong.