In Office in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

I decided to be in the office today because I figured there was a lot to do. I was… gosh, I wish English had a word for “you’re not wrong but you’re also not right.” Because… there is a lot to do, but there isn’t a lot to get done. What does that mean? Well… in the coming two weeks I have 45 hearings. That’s… a shit ton considering the court is still not even open. And that ranges from “Criminal on Probation continuing violent behavior” to “Child in need must be placed in less abusive home” to “Speeding Ticket”. So there is a lot to do… but with very few exceptions, the end of all of those hearings will be “We’ll continue the matter until courts re-open.” And let me tell you how honestly torn I am about that. On one hand… the State is not, cannot, and should not be forcing individuals to expose themselves to viral environments simply to pay or argue a speeding ticket. All we need is “65 year old man contests traffic ticket; dies of COVID”. Also, because of COVID… we are being very sensitive about “Probation revocation.. we are busting our ass not to send you to prison. But if you violated probation by stabbing somebody? There’s no other choice. To prison you must away!” That being said… this virus is significantly interrupting justice. Typically, after I make an offer on a case… we have about 30 days until we re-examine the offer. Take it, leave it, let’s get ready for trial! That… is SO not the case anymore. At all. Now… there are deals that have been made in March that aren’t scheduled to come back up for another few months! Everything is kicked down the road to the ill-defined “whenever.” And ultimately… that is the biggest problem when discussing the virus, government, and the human response. Government work on time tables and deadlines. You have until July 17th to vote on this bill or the bill dies in committee. Budget is built for exactly THIS amount of time. That kind of thing. The human response, especially in this country, is that NOW and WHEN are the questions of focus. We want things immediately and if we can’t have it NOW we need to know WHEN we can have it. This pandemic, and all pandemics, don’t work that way. Which is why the “random date on a calendar and stick to it no matter what” of our Governor was imbecilic. You can’t will things to be just because you want them that way. The easier, smarter way of handling all of this would be to speak clearly but honestly:
We don’t know when exactly we’ll be on the other side of this. But every Iowan, every American can help us end this faster. The more people stay home, wear masks, social distance; the faster this will be resolved. When our numbers start to diminish and we aren’t seeing hundreds of new cases every day, we’ll be able to give you a more specific WHEN. But for now… WHEN is in the hands of each and every one of you. And if you want that WHEN to be NOW; then you need to make sure you’re doing everything you can to slow the spread of this.

That’s what was needed. Instead… we got “We will never Shelter in Place.” Instead we got “There may be hundreds of cases of COVID in our meat packing facilities; but we refuse to shut them down.” Instead we got “We will begin to reopen on May 1 no matter what.” Which tells those of us that actually know how shit works… that we have less idea now than EVER as to when we’ll actually be on the other side of this! Because we’re not testing. We’re not tracing. We’re not actively attempting to stop the spread. So… yeah. We’ll pretend everything is fine. We’ll work with the “idea” that we’ll be able to open our court rooms slowly over June, July, and August. But… I mean… of the over 11,000 cases this state has had… we picked up almost 4,000 new cases IN THE FIRST 9 DAYS OF REOPENING. So… almost near enough to HALF of all cases in the state between reopening and May 9. And that, as everyone is stating, is an under representation due to testing availability. So… yeah. While we try to figure out how we’re going to uphold law and order in the midst of all of this? We have a government and a people who “got bored with waiting” and “wanted to overthrow the tyranny of government oppression” and in so doing… managed to get our numbers from “a bit above 7,00 cases” to “over 11,00 cases” in a little over ONE week.