Jury Duty

Yesterday I finished my grand jury experience. In our county the grand jury meets one day every other week, and jurors serve for a three month period. Some states have eliminated the grand jury. Their argument is that it turns out to be just a rubber stamp for the prosecutor’s office and is therefore an unnecessary, time consuming and expensive step. After serving on our grand jury, I do not agree with this assessment. Even though in most cases we did indict, there were a few that we did not. To me the grand jury is a vital protection of our civil rights. What separates a democratic judicial system from a dictatorial one is oversight and participation by ordinary citizens, one’s peers. During the case presentations, we had the opportunity to question our prosecutor and law enforcement. Our job was not to determine someone’s guilt or innocence, but to ensure that citizens are not accused when the evidence against them fails to reach the level of probable cause. One can only imagine the stress, loss of income, expense of legal council, possible damage to one’s reputation, etc. that being accused and forced to make a defense in court can create. Accusing someone of a crime is serious, and citizens should be protected from possible abuse by government. As part of our oversight of our judicial system, grand jurors were even taken on a tour and treated to a jail lunch at the county jail. The consensus appeared to be that the prisoners were humanely treated and nutritiously fed. Even though our jail is modern, clean and well run, none of us desired to spend much time there.

That brings me to the other part of my day, the two hours in the morning before my jury duty. It was a beautiful spring day with a hint of rain to come. The dog woke me up early, and we watched the sunrise as we made our way to the park. The cumulonimbus clouds were a mix of gray and white etched with pink and gold as the sun tried to break through. The birds were everywhere, hopping robins, scolding blue jays, chirping cardinals and geese honking overhead as they made their way to the nearby lake. At one point, I even saw a crane fly overhead with its long legs and neck. As the dog played chase the stick and my eyes feasted on the yellow daffodils, I began to think about the people we had heard about during our jury duty in previous weeks. Some would surly be heading to jail where they would be deprived of this beauty for a long time. For the most part, the people we heard about did not intend to get into the mess they were in. They made bad decisions, often under the influence of drugs or alcohol or because of an addiction to them. When I took my summer school civics students on field trips to the jail, I always asked the officers leading our tour what percent of the prisoners were there because of alcohol or drugs. The answer was always 80 to 90%.

This nation needs to deal with its drug and alcohol problem. It is an epidemic that ruins the lives of and kills not only users and addicts but their family members and even strangers. The cost is tremendous when one considers auto accidents, higher insurance rates, health problems, broken homes, unemployment and lost time on the job, failure to pay child support, child neglect and abuse, domestic violence, crime, cost of law enforcement and prisons, educational failure, and deaths from overdoses and suicides. If there was ever a health problem that deserved our attention and funding for treatment and research to find a cure, addiction should be right at the top of the list, but it isn’t. Why?

One reason is that like obesity, we tend to blame the victim instead of treating the disease. Another reason is that many of us have the disease and are blind to the symptoms because of denial. We fight coming to grips with the problems addiction is causing in our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. As a society, we have grown so used to addiction that we assume it is normal state, and we cannot do anything about it. It is such a part of our social life that it is hard to go anywhere that people are gathered for recreation where it is not present and being abused. Legal drugs are advertised that claim to do everything from stopping hair loss to giving us a good night’s sleep and even improving our sexual experiences. They are advertised, not just with the facts but with all the glitz, comedy and persuasive propaganda the drug companies’ ad agents can muster. Our government’s response, the War On Drugs has made the problem of addiction appear to be a threat from somewhere else, not a problem we need to be personally involved in solving with our family members, our neighbors and our friends.

On the bright side, public awareness seems to be increasing. I’ve seen more media attention to the subject with more accurate information. HBO recently partnered with NIH and aired a 90 min. special and CNN's Lou Dobbs had a special, The War Within. The congress is considering a bill to force insurance companies to cover mental health issues including drug and alcohol addiction on an equal basis with physical ailments. The House and the Senate each have introduced a bill though the House bill is the stronger of the two. If you care about this issue, now is the time to call or write your representatives to get their support for this important legislation.