Jury Duty

Last Monday, I had to fulfill my civic duty as an American Citizen. I was called into jury duty. First of all, it was in Oakland (about 45 minutes away from my house), and I had to be there at 8:30am. For a college student during the Summertime that is WAY too early-especially for me, since we all know I'm a bum. Anyway, I made it there on time, and sat in the jury room, waiting, and waiting, for them to call my name. As I was waiting, I looked around to see if I knew anybody, and I did recognize a guy from my hometown, but did not talk to him. So about 15 minutes into the wait an older, African-American man sat next to me. Naturally, we started talking. I got to know a lot about him. He lives in Hayward, works at UC Berkeley in the DC, served in the Navy, and has carpal tunnel in his right wrist. After chatting for a bit, he introduced himself. His name was Pearl...