Ridiculous

I saw a news article that just had "ridiculous" written all over it! A Nashville paper covered a story from Baltimore. Here is the link. A nursing mother was summoned for jury duty. She wrote a letter asking to be excused because...duh, she is NURSING an infant child. She was denied her request and when she failed to show was held in contempt of court, looking at a possible fine and jail time. Are you kidding me? When did our society decided that mothers who are home taking care of children deserve such little respect.

I must say that luckily the only time I was called in for jury duty there was a judge with some common sense. I was also called into court to answer as to why I failed to respond to my summons. I had in fact written a letter to the judge explaining that I had two children (I believe they were between 1 to 3 yrs old), no one to care for them as well as a few other reasons. Evidently several letters had been misplaced around the same time in his office. There was a group of about 15 people called into a back room together where he questioned us all. When I went in I made sure that I took the guys in with me. I told him of my letter and stated "these are part of my reasons" and he excused me. I am not saying that I never would serve on jury duty, but I would hope that they would accommodate a stay at home mother to small children.

Also, I believe that there are some trials that should not have women jurors. Take for example a local case we have. There was a young couple who were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered. All of the details have not been released, partially for reasons of the disgusting and graphic nature. It was a horrible event that took place and something that I think that we should protect woman and children from seeing or hearing about. Some things are so detestable and immoral in nature that we should shield these horrors from women and children, not willingly expose them to it.