WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.200 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:02.820 align:middle line:84% This next poem has two epigraphs. 00:00:02.820 --> 00:00:05.760 align:middle line:84% I think it's pretty self-explanatory. 00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:09.240 align:middle line:84% The first epigraph is from Michelle Alexander's book 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:14.100 align:middle line:84% The New Jim Crow, which I highly recommend. 00:00:14.100 --> 00:00:20.520 align:middle line:84% And she writes, "Almost no one ever goes to trial. 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:26.430 align:middle line:84% Nearly all criminal cases, 97% are resolved 00:00:26.430 --> 00:00:28.860 align:middle line:90% through plea bargaining." 00:00:28.860 --> 00:00:31.800 align:middle line:90% And that was stunning to me. 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.080 align:middle line:84% As a former lawyer, I wasn't a criminal lawyer, 00:00:34.080 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:84% but still, I was just shocked to think 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:42.120 align:middle line:84% how much of our idea about criminals is based on the idea 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:45.540 align:middle line:84% that they've been proven guilty-- 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:48.430 align:middle line:90% mostly not. 00:00:48.430 --> 00:00:50.700 align:middle line:84% And the second epigraph is from TS Eliot. 00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:54.282 align:middle line:84% So poets out there, if you know your Prufrock. 00:00:54.282 --> 00:00:55.890 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:58.590 align:middle line:90% Let us go and make our visit. 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:01.005 align:middle line:90% This poem is called "Jury Duty." 00:01:01.005 --> 00:01:04.019 align:middle line:90% 00:01:04.019 --> 00:01:07.090 align:middle line:90% No one wants to be there. 00:01:07.090 --> 00:01:10.470 align:middle line:84% Many of us glitter like the sea in sunshine, 00:01:10.470 --> 00:01:13.410 align:middle line:84% shedding sweat or tears at the mere thought 00:01:13.410 --> 00:01:15.600 align:middle line:90% of a criminal court. 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:20.490 align:middle line:84% Such proximity to police, to cuffs, and charges. 00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:24.870 align:middle line:84% To be trapped playing a role in some tragedy, condemner, 00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:28.770 align:middle line:84% uncomfortably close to the condemned. 00:01:28.770 --> 00:01:32.670 align:middle line:84% Many others think instantly of opportunity costs. 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:34.920 align:middle line:90% Time is money. 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:37.560 align:middle line:84% Who can afford to spend three to five days 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:41.010 align:middle line:84% worth listening to the lawyers coming and going 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:43.890 align:middle line:84% through the oceans of files, talking 00:01:43.890 --> 00:01:47.490 align:middle line:90% of boys who were no angels. 00:01:47.490 --> 00:01:48.690 align:middle line:90% No. 00:01:48.690 --> 00:01:51.960 align:middle line:84% To serve is a right and our duty. 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:54.000 align:middle line:90% Each to each. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.570 align:middle line:84% But the potential juror peers into the courtroom 00:01:57.570 --> 00:02:02.140 align:middle line:84% as if it were quarantined for the plague. 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:07.210 align:middle line:84% Once years ago, my father served in a trial. 00:02:07.210 --> 00:02:10.660 align:middle line:84% A stormy evening, the darkness intensified 00:02:10.660 --> 00:02:13.600 align:middle line:84% by winds that made our metal screen door 00:02:13.600 --> 00:02:16.540 align:middle line:90% buzz like a warped harmonica. 00:02:16.540 --> 00:02:20.290 align:middle line:84% As we waited dinner for him, the power failed. 00:02:20.290 --> 00:02:23.380 align:middle line:84% My sister and I, young and younger, 00:02:23.380 --> 00:02:26.590 align:middle line:84% shrieked until our mom lit the fat candle, 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:31.660 align:middle line:84% its plastic container painted to look like stained glass. 00:02:31.660 --> 00:02:35.560 align:middle line:84% As we sat distracted by flickering scenes of Jesus's 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:38.380 align:middle line:90% miracles, the phone rang. 00:02:38.380 --> 00:02:41.380 align:middle line:84% Our father's one call to tell our mother 00:02:41.380 --> 00:02:47.570 align:middle line:84% the jury would be sequestered overnight in courthouse cells. 00:02:47.570 --> 00:02:49.040 align:middle line:90% Daddy's in jail-- 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:49.540 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:49.540 --> 00:02:52.360 align:middle line:90% --was all we girls took in. 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.640 align:middle line:84% Our lives had been a steady caravan 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:57.610 align:middle line:84% of cautions and counsels, inevitably ending, 00:02:57.610 --> 00:03:00.460 align:middle line:90% and stay out of prison. 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:05.290 align:middle line:84% We hardly dared imagine that anyone once caught behind bars 00:03:05.290 --> 00:03:07.690 align:middle line:90% emerged again. 00:03:07.690 --> 00:03:12.280 align:middle line:84% The next day brought morning sun and Father in the afternoon. 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:17.230 align:middle line:84% We greeted him as if he'd come from the dead. 00:03:17.230 --> 00:03:22.120 align:middle line:84% Would it be a hardship to serve three weeks, dutiful jurors 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:24.780 align:middle line:90% in my state are asked. 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:29.190 align:middle line:84% The line to plead excuses runs long. 00:03:29.190 --> 00:03:33.150 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, money or lack thereof is 00:03:33.150 --> 00:03:36.960 align:middle line:84% time for all the men and women awaiting trials 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:41.580 align:middle line:84% in cells they can't bail themselves out of. 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:45.240 align:middle line:84% They hear the prosecutors spooning out their lives, 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:49.410 align:middle line:84% inviting the accused, sing to me. 00:03:49.410 --> 00:03:55.230 align:middle line:84% They sing-- a chorus loud of bodies White, and Brown, 00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:58.650 align:middle line:84% and Black, flooding prisons in waves 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:02.730 align:middle line:84% while we malinger on the beach in our own sequestered 00:04:02.730 --> 00:04:04.770 align:middle line:90% chambers. 00:04:04.770 --> 00:04:08.070 align:middle line:84% Their human voices wake us, or we drown. 00:04:08.070 --> 00:04:11.934 align:middle line:90% 00:04:11.934 --> 00:04:14.349 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:14.349 --> 00:04:19.670 align:middle line:90% 00:04:19.670 --> 00:04:20.570 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:04:20.570 --> 00:04:24.690 align:middle line:84% I think I will read just two more. 00:04:24.690 --> 00:04:28.160 align:middle line:84% I don't want to go over time accidentally. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.150 align:middle line:84% And I'm not keeping track very well.