Trial By Jury!

This morning I found myself sitting in a juror room with 300+ Orange County citizens. We all checked in, found a seat, and then listened carefully to the role of a juror. Then we raised our right hands and took an oath to tell the truth and to abide by the laws of the court. The tone was very serious and we all knew how important our role for the day or days would be.
As I was doing this, I couldn’t help but think about the origins of democracy and how our democratic system has changed over time. I first thought about Socrates and how he strongly believed in man’s ability to reason and that all citizens (which happened to be only land holding men) should be able to participate in government. While he did leave some people out, he was on the right idea. I agree that we are all born was brains that have tremendous ability to analyze and problem solve. The best part of using our brains in a democracy is having different points of views represented. This not only helps create better ideas, but with different points of view any problem can be solved. If we all thought exactly the same, the progress we’ve seen in history would not be as great as it is. His protégé Plato took a different approach and thought that Philosophers should be kings because they wouldn’t get corrupted by wealth or power. Then Aristotle returned back to Socrates’ ideas and expanded them by creating a mixed gov’t that had checks and balances to ensure that one group would not be too powerful.
Meanwhile to the east, the Romans also had a democratic system called a Republic similar to the Greeks. The republic was made up of two counsels (elected by the citizens )who ran the gov’t and was and a senate that advised the two counsels. They also had a written law code, The Twelve Tables, that require all citizens to follow .
Both the Greeks and Romans used many democratic practices still used today like Trial by Jury. This allowed citizens to be tried by a group of their peers to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. This is done to ensure equality for all citizens. These ancient people groups had some groundbreaking ideas, however these ideas somehow got lost over time and democracy was lost for many many years. Perhaps because of constant battles with neighboring peoples, famines, plagues, Crusades, etc.
However, thankfully with England’s Magna Carta in 1215 democracy returned with the king’s power being limited and shared with Parliment. Also Due Process of law and Trial by Jury returned. From here on, democracy slowly returned and by the 1750s, Enlightenment period, the people had enough of absolute monarchies and their abuse of power. Angry North American Colonist and citizens all around the world sought out revolution seeking greater personal liberties and freedoms.
This brings me back to America. Many of those nations who sought out democracy had a rough time keeping it, and at one point we did too. Thankfully the Union stayed together and our Constitution stood strong. Our country values democracy and natural rights for all citizens of the wrold and we have fought many wars and battles to maintain democracy in our nation and our sister countries. Living in this great democratic nation there are very few things it requires of its citizens: pay taxes, fight in war when needed and be part of the jury system. I’m glad that today I could come and do my part. While the court system is not always perfect, I still think it is fairer than other systems out there. Thankfully, we have system where citizens can come together, participate, think and determine the outcome of a particular problem.