Jury Duty

It seems the government required my services today. And it looks as though they may be demanding my presence for the remainder of this week. At this point, I'm of course not at liberty to comment as to the nature of the proceedings. However, I do intend to record a memoir of the experience here once the law allows.

But today, in our hallowed halls of justice, surrounded by what could only be described as a representative cross-section of the local citizenry, I overheard a woman say, "Well the bible says you shouldn't sue someone." And I was once again reminded of these immortal words from one of the greatest freethinkers in American history. And I had to share.

Ingersoll's Vow

When I became convinced that the Universe is natural--that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my "soul," into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the world -- not even in infinite space. I was free -- free to think, to express my thoughts -- free to live to my own ideal -- free to live for myself and those I loved -- free to use all my faculties, all my senses -- free to spread imagination's wings -- free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope -- free to judge and determine for myself -- free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past -- free from popes and priests -- free from all the "called" and "set apart" -- free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies -- free from the fear of eternal pain -- free from the winged monsters of the night -- free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I was free. There was no prohibited places in all the realms of thought -- no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings -- no chains for my limbs -- no lashes for my back -- no fires for my flesh -- no master's frown or threat -- no following another's steps -- no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain -- for the freedom of labor and thought -- to those who fell on the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains -- to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs -- to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn -- to those by fire consumed -- to all the wise, the good, the brave of every lands, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they held, and hold it tight, that light might conquer darkness still.

Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 - July 21, 1899)