“I just know I’m going to be picked,” I told Sera after receiving the dreaded letter in the mail earlier this summer. I have yet to meet someone who was excited about receiving a summons for jury duty, but I’m sure those people exist out there somewhere. I’ll admit to being mildly interested in the process, but these types of forced invitations always come at the worst of times.

I completed my service several weeks ago, during one of the busiest weeks of work and our first scheduled ultrasound for the baby girl. Thankfully I wasn’t called in on the day of the ultrasound, but I did miss several days of work to serve on the jury of a criminal case. Although initially not being too thrilled, I’ll admit my reaction has evolved being on the other side of jury duty. Not everyone gets to experience this American responsibility, and it truly is an honorable activity that places decision making directly in the hands of ordinary citizens.

When you think about the rights and responsibilities you have as a member of this country, jury duty might not come to the top of the list. In fact, the only one that immediately came to my mind was the right to vote. Being that my wife is currently journeying toward U.S. citizenship, I consulted one of our favorite websites — the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services  — to learn more about what it means to be a citizen in America. It turns out there are nine responsibilities, and I thought you might like to be reminded of them today.

1. Support and defend the Constitution.

2. Stay informed of the issues affecting your community.

3. Participate in the democratic process.

4. Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws.

5. Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others.

6. Participate in your local community.

7. Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state and local au thorities.

8. Serve on a jury when called upon.

9. Defend the country if the need should arise.

That’s a pretty powerful list, and it challenges us all to be far less passive in our lives. Numbers 5 and 6 particularly stick out to me as unique. You have the responsibility to be respectful and to participate in your local community. We can certainly interpret those responsibilities in different ways, but they’re certainly a call to action that may be ignored more often than we’d like to admit.

Ignoring jury duty is a lot harder. Shortly after being thanked for showing up, the rest of the jurors and I were reminded that if we had failed to show up, we could be escorted by law enforcement to the court room. Personally, I was glad I decided to attend on my own accord. This was one responsibility I was going to take seriously, and I’m glad I did. The case assigned to myself and the rest of the jurors was a criminal case, and although we had nothing to do with sentencing, a guilty verdict would most likely be sending someone to jail for a significant amount of time. That’s a heavy burden, and I’m thankful deliberations did not come down to my sole opinion.

My time serving on a jury was an enlightening experience. Although inconveniently timed, it was an excellent reminder of the effectiveness and fairness in our nation’s judicial process. Our judge repeatedly reminded us that we weren’t serving as jurors alone. There were thousands of other ordinary citizens serving on thousands of other cases around the country. This was a system of our government at work, and it’s a system we should be taking more pride in. The next time I’m invited to serve as a juror, I’ll greet that letter with a more positive attitude. Our nation, state and city depend on our participation in order to succeed. I hope we all can take a look at those nine responsibilities of citizenship, and commit to pursuing them with greater intent.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.