Opinion: That other civic political duty

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A lot of attention is focused on voting during the gradually increasing heat of presidential election campaigns. What would elections be without voting? It’s considered a fundamental right and properly celebrated, although, alas, not universally exercised in this country where so many benefits are taken for granted.

But what often gets overlooked in these intensely political campaigns is that other civic duty that so many try to ignore in a democracy: jury duty.

That’s the opportunity to sit around all day in a sterile public room with hard wooden or plastic chairs on the off chance that some lawyers making considerably more than $15 a day will agree that you should sit in honest human judgment of their client or the prosecution and then, if the accused is sufficiently famous or infamous, both you and your family will be subjected to relentless media harassment and scrutiny until you agree to talk in public about what it was like to meet in secret with 11 strangers and come up with a verdict that so many other citizens disagree with, even though they did not hear any of the testimony.

So in order to recognize this thrilling part of democracy in action, the U.S. Postal Service yesterday issued a new stamp. It costs 41 cents. It shows the profiles of 12 representative jurors only in silhouette to protect their identity. Their names were not released either.

At a New York City ceremony marking Juror Appreciation Day (to show their appreciation, officials called no jurors to the ceremony), New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye said the new stamp ‘celebrates the important role of our citizenry in the delivery of justice.’ Presumably the stamp also plays an important role in the delivery of mail.

One problem, however, has already showed up with the new stamps. You have to lick them by 8 a.m. and then they must be left sitting around in a sterile room all day drying until at least 4 p.m..

-- Andrew Malcolm