Waiting outside the gathering room for all the persons called to report for jury duty. Rather than looking like a gathering of my peers, it looks like a post modern Ellis Island, with the same sentiments, Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, Tempest-tossed to me.
That pretty much describes what we all looked like. There was a very strong smell of alcohol wafting around the head of one caucasian middle-aged man, who was eating a lunch packet. There are about eight women in the middle-age bracket, three of whom are African American. A slew of women in the 20-40 age range and a disproportionate amount of Asians, men and women. There is one male representative of the 1%. The number of men, aged 30-50 is about equal to the number of young women. This is most likely what the City looks like by population breakdown. Almost no interaction among the waiters, and rather than hiding behind newspapers, everyone’s eyes are downcast as they are buried in their electronic devices.
As the day progressed, I was the #1 seat for a trial. However, once the two lawyers and I had a tete-a-tete in the ante room, I was released. Eight citizens went off without me to do their civic duty.
Day two. No need for trial persons. We are all released at lunch time.