A little social commentary...

Very much a diversion from my norm... Not even sure this is social commentary - what is it exactly? I don't even read the editorial section of the newspaper, and if it isn't reported on the Disney Channel, then it just didn't happen... So here goes...

Remember how the Ironman was called for federal jury duty? He was probably sworn to secrecy, but he told me a few things that I found interesting. First is purely an observation - no political/social comment at all...

3 "Brown" Women (as Avery calls the "Brown" Nick in her class when she is trying to differentiate from the Nick with "white hair") were asked to state name, address, blah, blah and race. An elderly woman responded "Negro", a 40ish woman said "Black" and a 30ish woman said "African American". Going no where with that, but I thought it was interesting.

Now here is where I ramble a little about our legal system. From what little I remember from Civics in high school, in a court of law, we are supposed to be judged by a jury of our peers.

So instead of incriminating the Ironman, I will put myself in the position as the defendant in the case. Let's pretend (as awful as it would be), I was sued for malpractice. Let's say I took a very aggressive position on a client's tax return - of which the client was aware. But when the IRS disagreed, I got slapped with a lawsuit from my client (this has never happened to me personally, so I better not be jinxing it).

If my case had been in the court room the day Shane was there, every single possible juror with ANY knowledge whatsoever about taxes would have been dismissed. Leaving only jurors who probably had never filed his own taxes, nor even looked at the return once prepared.

Now explain to me - how is this a jury of my peers? How can someone without any tax knowledge understand the intricacies of the tax code enough to render a guilty or innocent decision. The same would be true for me in a medical malpractice suit. How could I with any confidence whatsoever understand a medical malpractice suit? The most I know about medicine is that I better take mine! Certainly I would be a terrible choice for a juror in such a case.

I'm sure tons of lawyers can explain this to me, and probably will, but it struck me as odd. I've never once considered it before - normally my thoughts don't run that deep, but just this once they did, so of course, I shared...

Lastly, on a side note, Ashley's husband had a car wreck yesterday. This morning on the way to school, Avery and Morgan noticed some tape on the back of his car. Collin has a snazzy rental now and when we passed their house tonight, Avery asked, "Did Uncle Collin get a different car because he didn't want people to ask him why he had tape on his car?" They make me laugh out loud everyday!