Monday, February 25, 2008

Is My Paranoia Warranted?

I've been feeling paranoid today. My paranoia comes from several sources. This may be a winding road, but stay with me.

On Saturday night, I watched "Runaway Jury," a movie based on John Grisham's bestseller, starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. We had started this movie a few weeks back, but my husband didn't like it within the first 20 minutes (of course, this could be due to the fact that the first two actors mentioned are not his favorites). I, myself, was interested in watching it because I may be called upon to serve jury duty this year.

Normally, I would welcome such an event. In fact, when I was in London, I attended a court case one day as an observer. It was fascinating. But, I have to say, when I received the letter informing me that I might serve jury duty, it was less-than-welcome news.

They clearly state that under no circumstances are you to bring children with you. Yet, lack of child care is not a valid excuse to get out of jury duty. I really stressed for a few days over this, thinking "how in the world can I be called away for jury duty? My husband works. I have no family nearby. I don't even know of anyone in this area whom I would trust to watch my children to allow me an evening out, let alone asking them to care for my kids every day while I serve jury duty for who knows how long.

My husband finally convinced me that my panic was borrowing trouble from tomorrow. It doesn't say that I will definitely be called for jury duty, just that my name is on the 2008 pool of names. And, I probably won't be called upon to serve on a case anything like the one profiled in the movie I just watched.

Still, that movie has my head reeling. It was very suspenseful and, I thought, well-done. It is the story of an important court case, where jury consultants are being paid big bucks to secure the outcome they desire. What they didn't expect was John Cusack's character, who has his own agenda and is going to try to buy either side in exchange for giving them the desired verdict. Clear to the end, you don't know which side is going to prevail. Throughout the movie, they show how people can find out all kinds of things about members of a jury and use this information to manipulate them.

Plus, I'm listening to a riveting book right now by Khaled Housseni, called A Thousand Splendid Suns. I have been shocked at how difficult it is to listen to. It details many historical events over the last three decades in Afghanistan and I find myself grieving over the conditions women live under in such countries. Moreover, I'm wondering if Housseni fears for his life for publishing this book.

Then, Cardiogirl at http://www.cardiogirl.net had some glitches with her computer service and missed a day. She is a member of Blog 365, so this bothered her. She finally posted a humorous post blaming Comcast not only for her computer service problems, but for every problem of the day. Wouldn't we all like to have one entity we could just place all the blame upon? I know I would.

In the comments to Cardiogirl's blog, I noticed that Guilty Secret at http://www.gs-whatnext.blogspot.com (who is British) said she is going to start using Cardiogirl's phrase, "I blame Comcast," even though nobody will have a clue what she is going on about (since they don't have Comcast in England). Ha! That made me chuckle.

But, Cardiogirl also received two comments from ... Comcast ... on her blog post. Cardiogirl is far more computer or blog-savvy than I am and she checked to see how he found her complaining post. Apparently, he had googled "comcast dog" (???) and wound up at Cardiogirl's site.

So, this has me paranoid. The government recently interrupted my boring life by adding some new stresses ... because they are the government and they CAN. I'm being intentionally vague here. I'm too paranoid to blog my true feelings about this recent turn of events because now I'm wondering who is out there logging onto my blog to find out every little detail about me. If I complain about the government, is there someone googling on-line to discover which bloggers are providing dissenting comments.

Of course, we don't live in Afghanistan and I dont' expect to have my fingers chopped off. However, I'm still feeling a bit spooked and paranoid. Big Brother is not too far-fetched an idea. The internet is allowing so many people to publish their own opinions and thoughts on things. Could this one day be used against us? I don't know. What do you think? Should I be worried?

6 comments:

Catherine said...

Hi Wendy, I used to work for the government, and I can assure you that they are not reading your blog unless you are in contact with known terrorists or criminals, which I'm sure you are not! Unlike companies, who have vested interest in making sure their products and services aren't maligned on the internet, the government doesn't really care if you say bad things about it, as long as you're not threatening anyone or collaborating with criminals. Seriously, you don't have to worry.

As for jury duty, actually you can get out of it because of child care. I got called for jury duty when Hannah was a few weeks old, and I called the number and explained that I was the sold child care provider for my infant who was breastfed and they said no problem they would excuse me. I think if you call and give the ages of your children and explain not having childcare, they will probably exempt you too.

Hoss said...

Great to read your blog, Wendy! You're a blogging machine.

Bob Hostetler

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm still a tiny bit freaked out about that and have decided to use the @ sign the next time I use the title of that company in a blog post. Okay, it did freak me out. There. I said it.

It continues to freak me out that he keeps responding to my response.

It still makes me happy to know that Guilty Secret is going to say that phrase when things go wrong, though.

Probably we have nothing to worry about and I do have plenty of Ativan to calm my nerves, but I did find that a bit strange, like you did.

And I'll bet watching that Grisham movie did nothing to calm your nerves. But I do like a good Grisham novel, I must admit.

Maria (also Bia) said...

You know, I have always wanted to be called for jury duty. Not only jury duty...but I want to be the jury forperson. Is that weird?

Have a great day.
God bless.

Wendy Hill said...

Catherine - thanks for your reassurances. I sent the form in with a footnoted explanation as to why I have difficulty with child care. I would love to join you in a writer's group, too ... if I could find some decent child care, ha!

Bob - so glad you popped by to visit my blog. Hope you read more than the paranoia entry - that was a bit tongue in cheek. Boy, am I glad we don't live in Afghanistan, though. Hope all is well with you.

Cardiogirl - yes, I'm still laughing picturing GS saying "I blame Comcast," in her lovely British accent.

Bia - I really do hope they call me for jury duty some time when I am not so trapped at home with small children. I don't share your desire to be the foreman, though. I would be intimidated by that job. This is the first time I've ever been contacted regarding jury duty (it seemed strange because we just moved here, but I lived in our last city for 15 years - you'd think I would have been called there).

Guilty Secret said...

Oh my, I am behind! Thanks for the shout out and hope the paranoia passed!