At the risk of sounding negative, people are frickin' stupid!

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago my husband comes home and tells me about an experience he had driving home from an appointment. He's driving on the Florida Turnpike and for once wasn't in a hurry to pick up the kids, teach a class, or get to another appointment. He sees a woman pulled over on the side of the road trying to wave someone down for help. So he thinks, ok I'm not in a hurry, I can do a good deed and help this poor stranded woman. He pulls over and cautiously walks toward her car trying to make sure that some big burly dude isn't going to jump him or something. Not seeing anyone else he approaches the woman and asks if he can help her. She opens a map of the city...not a nice AAA map, or one published by McMillan, no, no...this was one of those cheesy touristy maps that you can pick up in the lobby of (insert the crappy hotel chain of your choice here). You know the maps, they are practically drawn like cartoons? She then proceeds to ask him how to get to the "Millennia Mall." Really? Really lady? You pulled off the side of a major highway and flagged down a stranger to ask how to get to a MALL?!? Really?!

Keep this event in mind as I discuss the following:
My husband begrudgingly reported for jury duty today and went through questioning to be picked for a case. He wasn't chosen, but was moved by a talk that the judge gave the would-be jurors regarding some historical facts he had come across during some research. The facts pertained to the 56 forefathers of our beloved country that signed the Declaration of Independence and the sacrifices some of these men made for their country, i.e. sacrificing their own lives, losing children in the revolutionary war, being captured, tortured and killed by the British after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They went through all of this and traveled for weeks to sign the document (keep in mind there were no cars, planes, trains, etc.) that would create a new form of government. A political idea that has lasted mostly unchanged for over 200 years now, which is pretty amazing. The judge's point was that the sacrifice of time, money, work time, etc. that they, the citizens summoned for jury duty made, were minimal in comparison to the sacrifices our forefathers made, but are still so important to our judicial system. Having always avoided jury duty like the plague because I had never considered the points that the aforementioned judge discussed, I, too changed my point of view regarding our judicial system.

So as this conversation continues, my husband brings up how insignificant his sacrifice was in relation to the case he had been questioned for, the result of which could drastically change the defendant's life. After-all, he wasn't busy doing anything "uber"-important today, other than some work, so he felt satisfied that he had done his civic duty and reported for jury duty. He then recalled the story with the tourist on the side of the road, drawing the correlation between the two events that it was worth his time in both cases to help a fellow citizen, especially since it was not a huge sacrifice on his part in order to do so in either case. To which I couldn't help but point out that when he stopped to help the "stranded" tourist she merely wanted directions to a shopping mall and that was "what he got" for trying to do a good deed for a random stranger. This is how my twisted and apparently "glass half empty" mind works.

Just thought I'd share...