Classic Rant #179 (January 25, 2010): President Shirks Jury Duty

Like the rest of us, President Obama has civic responsibilities that he must carry out. One of them is jury duty.

Obama was called for jury duty in Illinois, but he won't be serving.

A White House official said yesterday that the President has alerted the Bridgeview court in suburban Chicago that he won't be able to appear for a court session beginning today.

Unlike the rest of us, Obama can give this excuse, and probably did: "My reason for not serving is that I have a very busy week ahead. Not only do I have to continue to run this country even with people throwing bricks at everything I do, but I have a State of the Union speech scheduled for Wednesday, and I need time to bone up on it."

Could you just imagine if you or I gave such a reason for putting off jury duty? "My reason for not serving is that I have a very busy week ahead. Not only do I have to continue to run my household even with my family throwing bricks at everything I do, but I have a State of the Household speech scheduled for Wednesday, and I need time to bone up on it."

No, I don't think that would work.

Famous people can get out of jury duty, I guess. I mean, does Hugh Hefner serve jury duty? How about Derek Jeter?

I probably have jury duty service coming up soon. I haven't been called in a few years, and I am sure New York State knows that.

I got called about four or five years ago for District Court, which for me, is in Brooklyn, or about 50 miles away from where I live. Not only is that a ridiculous amount of miles to drive for jury duty, but at the time, jury duty and myself did not mix well. I could get out of it real quickly, by simply saying, "I have to pay child support, and my company will only pay me for three days on jury duty." No lies, no muss, no fuss--I got off then, and I got off numerous times because of this fact.

Now, I don't pay child support anymore, as my daughter is over 21 years old.

Well, I can't use that excuse anymore. It was the only positive thing that I, personally, received from paying child support for 19 years or so.

I know I will be called, and I know my reasons for not serving will be legitimate--to me, at least. But I guess that I am out of excuses. I will have to serve, take my lumps at work, and try to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Hopefully, it won't be a prolonged case. Something quick.

OK, I am ready, willing and able to serve.

Let's get it over with!