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Jury day
A display—“Celebrating the Rule of Law”—honored 150 years of jury law in Massachusetts. There it sat front and center of the jury pool room brimming with people like me called to serve. Perhaps we were all a bit awed. Reluctant to be there. Apprehensive.
In spite of an impending house sale, a pack up and move deadline—with time out to find a new home in another state—I’d felt a strong need to be in court. Yet I was still so focused on wondering, “Will I be called? How long will this take?” that initially the display didn’t catch my attention.
When it did, it really did! Celebrate the Rule of Law. How provocative. Fitting, of course, right there in the Suffolk County Courthouse, near where John Adams first asserted a jury of peers as fundamental. But it was the thought of God’s law, the law of divine Love and profound goodness, that slid in, soothing me. I thought how basic and fundamental the Ten Commandments have become to governments, to lives, to my life. That’s where awe took over, as I considered how for centuries Moses’ Decalogue has guided just behavior, gracious communities, balanced families, and yes, judicial systems that include a jury of peers. Think of the healthy standards that spring up when theft and murder are not condoned; respect for parents and neighbors encouraged.
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