Standing My Ground – Sunset Observer #26, by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

February 25, 2014 Whitney Farmer 7 Comments

Drinking tea in the waiting room while “The Price is Right” broadcasts on all monitors…All Drew / All the Time…

This is a part of jury duty that I didn’t expect.

It’s easy to complain about how far away jurors park from the building, or the $10 a day we are paid, or having to get up soooo early to commute during the rush hour that all Californians seek to avoid or outwit.

But I see people here who don’t look like me and who might be new citizens stand up straight in new clothes when their names are called. They look proud. They might have fled from places where people are executed for not clapping loudly enough when a pudgy skin sack full of demons steps up to a podium to speak more lies, or from places where generations of families without practical hope work to make other pudgy S-S-F-of-Ds wealthy beyond imagination. And now we all are candidates who may be picked as a jury of peers. We are peers now, Citizen Peers. And we may be asked to be Philosopher Kings.

Maybe I could have been excused, but it occurred to me that I didn’t want to fight against this.

Today, I might have a chance to be just. I might be one of twelve who affirm that a handshake is a contract (Getty vs Texaco which led to the first $1 billion civil settlement.) I might get to free an innocent person, or protect a child.

Or I might be allowed to vote against something absurd, like a defense that suggests it is okay for anyone to shoot nine rounds into a car at a gas station because the occupants had previously been playing loud music (which had been turned off before when asked).

If anyone tries to sell that hot lying mess to me, it will be a mistake.

This is my land. And I will stand my ground.

You can sit on the grass. But don’t pick the flowers. And definitely don’t kill them.

Quote of the Blog from Michael Dunn, from jail in Florida after killing a 17-year-old for playing loud rap music: “I’m the (expletive deleted) victim here… (chuckle)…I was the victor but I was the victim too…like how the police used to think when a chick got raped going, ‘Oh it’s all her fault because of the way she dressed’. I’m like ‘So it’s all my fault’ (laughter)…”

NEXT TIME: Victory Against…!

Image of a different Michael Dunn – an actor – from a guest starring episode of “The Wild Wild West”. He also appeared in an episode of “Star Trek” which included the first interracial kiss in television history. It was between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. Happy Black History Month.