Civic duties...

Okay, so if you read the last post, you will remember that I was tapped for jury duty. Now I am not a huge fan of lawyers, or court proceedings in general. I do appreciate that they have a usefulness. But I also believe that if a small amount of personal responsibility had been taken, then I wouldn't have had to miss a whole week of work. Since the case is over I can share a bit. It was a civil case involving a drunk driver. Someone decided to drink and drive a car. They rear-ended the other party in the case. The guy who was rear-ended was a cab driver just trying to make a living. He ended up with brain damage that affected what could have been a promising music career.

The defense had a shitty case. When one chooses a course of action, one must think ahead to most possible outcomes. Now I am not suggesting that you consider every single effect that your action will have, but think "hey, if I have this junk food, I may gain weight." Or how about "if I don't pay attention, I may hit something when I am in my car". Not totally unreasonable expectations, just the ones that I think most thinking people take into account.

Now the people in the case were my contemporaries, Gen X. I have made the observation over the last few years, that my generation is the "It's not my fault" generation. My parents were 'Baby Boomers', my parents had Korea and Vietnam. My Grand Parents were the 'Greatest Generation'. They fought and died in World War 2. My generation...we ain't got shit. We have 2 'conflicts' in a giant sandbox. I thank our troops every day for my freedoms, and all I ask is that people use a little forethought before they act on something.

While our justice system is at times flawed, it is a right we have. We have those rights because those who came before us fought for those rights. They wanted to leave our country better than it was when they were here. They took responsibility for not only themselves, but for all of us and our futures. So I think that we as a generation need to pull our heads out of our asses and do our prior generations proud by deciding to stand on our own two feet and realize that somethings are our fault. 

In realizing that we share part of the blame for things, we can begin to correct those things that we have effected with our mindsets. We can start to fix the economy, we can start to put our country back in order. Had the defendant in the trial I was on, come on out and said 'I was drunk, I hit the cab, all we need your help in deciding what a fair amount of compensation is', I think the outcome would have been different. As he decided that everything else was at fault, and he didn't give the impression that he thought he was at fault at all, he is now out $1.7 million.

That's a fucking expensive lesson.