Corona, Government, Home, and More (PART ONE) in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

Even in a state with a population as small and as scattered as our little state, the spread of the disease can be seen for the legitimate emergency it is. When confirmed cases were first announced, there were three. Within days, that had grown to seventeen cases. That may not sound alarming to some. But do the math. Even in the most terrifying disease maps where numbers double every time period… that would mean 3 to 6 to 12 to 24… and those numbers usually aren’t daily numbers of infected. So, yeah. This virus is a big deal. Of course, don’t tell that to my Trumpeter Cousin. The two things he was pushing most this weekend? (1) The Coronavirus is a media panic intended to bring Trump down because the Democrats failed at impeachment. (2) More proof that nobody needs celebrities, media, or sports figures but everybody needs farmers and ranchers!
Frankly… I just let both of those idiocy statements go. It isn’t worth my energy arguing over those or even developing an emotional response. Logically? The media panic line is absolute bullshit. Right now, World Health Organization and the CDC are in agreement that this is a virus that is likely to hit almost everyone in some way. Soooo… the idea that this is manufactured Liberal Media Panic to go after “his” president is beneath the level of rational thought. As for this virus demonstrating that “only the jobs that are really needed stay open” during an outbreak? So… you don’t think we need teachers but we do need attorneys? Let me tell you passionately… if we did better with Teachers and Schools, we’d need far less attorneys in this world. This isn’t even my statement because attorneys know what our real value is: “Attorneys spend 90% of their time on 10% of their clients. Truly ours is a job where stupid people are job security!”

I’ll use that as a segue into the official current response from our local government.

(1) Iowa Supreme Court has cancelled all Jury Trials until April 20.
RE: This is, sadly, an intelligent and important thing though it screws the system hard core. You see, Iowa is largely a population of “older” people. A government action requiring people to gather in large groups or face criminal or civil liability… is just asking to get more people sick. So suspending jury trials is absolutely the right thing to do. But it will make everything worse. There are requirements per the law. Individuals who are arrested and charged with a crime are given a constitutional right to speedy trial. We are required to initiate a trial within 90 days of Official Indictment; and we are required to have an indictment filed within between 10 and 45 days of an arrest. SO… best case scenario, we have a Constitutional Requirement to go to jury trial within 4 to 5 months. March Trial Date… April Trial Date… and the courts had actually already removed our May Trial Date (and have no intention to reinstate it). So if you were arrested in 2020 (Jan or Feb)… well, there may be a good chance that we give you the SWEET HEART DEAL TO END SWEET HEART DEALS or just dismiss the damned case because of procedural necessity. These are… concerning.

(2) Our governor has suggested that all schools close for four weeks. Currently, schools are allowed to make their own individual decisions; but many schools are on “extended closure” with Staff Meetings scheduled this week to determine what the best course of action will be.
RE: With schools closed, a lot of Child Care Options will also be closed. Because the whole damned point of closing the schools is to prevent the young and contagious from congregating together.
(A) With children being essentially “trapped in their homes”; as the Juvenile Case Worker, I am now terrified of how many cases of abuse and neglect will either get a lot worse or go completely unnoticed. For a lot of kids, their food and/or their safety is found exclusively at school and/or child care. May God protect these children.
(B) With children not being able/allowed to go to school or Child Care Options… that means a parent, sibling, or baby sitter will be needed to stay home with the children. IMAGINE the ramifications there! Single parent homes? That could be a massive financial burden. Shit, even a lot of homes where both parents are present, that could be a massive financial burden! So instead of politicizing this whole thing; can we focus on how it actually is impacting real people? Please?

(3) Iowa is a state where a lot of the “local hospitals and doctors’ offices” are closed. For an increasingly large number of Iowans, the nearest hospital is between one hour and two hours away. Those hospitals are equipped to assist their immediate area. Which means if everyone who needed that hospital (as it is their only hospital) showed up all at once? These hospitals would have to turn away 80 to 90% of everyone who showed up.
RE: If you are discussing a possibility where up to 90% of people are being turned away from hospitals; that IS an emergency worth responding to.

AND YET

Do you know what people in this area are saying? Including my boss, the elected official, and his bosses, elected officials?
“This is all media panic and the W.H.O. throwing their weight around. Liberal Media push and World Government exercise of authority.”
HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT BALLS.
I mean… I get it. I get it. We’ve politicized fucking everything and the government here is run exclusively by the GOP so they have to fall lock-step with Trump and act like this whole damned thing is unimportant. I get it.

BUT IT IS FUCKING IDIOTIC!

Our county is almost 40% over the age of 55. Our one hospital in the county lacks any specialists of any kind and is essentially just a big building for RNA/CNA training for the local community college. The next closest hospital that people go to? Is 90 minutes away and would be required to accommodate up to 6 separate counties. That is a bare minimum (using total population numbers) of at least 75,000 people. SO… instead of shrugging this off like Liberal Media Panic or a World Government Conspiracy… can we act like goddamned ADULTS and do our jobs of both calming the public and protecting the public? For shit sake!

Now, I get that everybody around here is acting like a political bitch and screaming that even so much as “voluntarily isolating oneself” is “over reaction” but I do want to say?

I wish I was allowed to self-isolate, man. And that is… a weird feeling.

Because you see… I still want people in my life. Like… if I don’t get an e-mail of substance, a Prosebox Note of substance, an FB Messenger conversation… some kind of “interaction” at least once a day? I go a little mad. Not like… seriously, but… I do want/need some form of Human Interaction once a day. Not to mention… I’m still feeling… in quite the need to feel… desirable. Which is something I’ll circle back to here later.

But other than that? It just seems… I mean… consider it! There are NO jury trials for the next month. So no jury trials and no pretrial conferences for those now non-existent jury trials. That is… at least 20% of my work that isn’t on the schedule anymore. To prevent disease spread, Judges are asking that as much of the other work is done on paper as possible. The other work? Sentencing and Pleadings. That is like 50% of my work right there that can now be done via e-mail and electronic filing. Therefore, in all technical truth, out of a (say) 31 days month… because the only courts that are still going are Magistrate and Juvenile… I only need to be in court 6 days. In the entire month. Even still… if I had to do a quick, surprise, random court hearing… that would be like a quick errand to the courthouse.

There are (quite sincerely) only TWO reasons to be in the office now that Jury Trials don’t exist. (1) To let the community see that our office is still open and working hard (so, the PR Political Optics reason); and (2) To let the community contact me by phone (so, the Bitch About Traffic Tickets and Bitch About Domestic Abuse Arrests reason). And while I admit that as a Community Public Figure, I should give a shit… those reasons are “irritating bordering on asinine.” I mean… I am somewhat immune compromised. Due to my body’s fucked up pain response/neurology bullshit… I tend to get sick more often and for longer than most “healthy people.” I’m not scared of COVID19 but I am absolutely one of those people where… “if most people won’t be too sick for too long”.... I’ll be in the hospital for 3 weeks if I catch it.

But mostly? If 70% of my job has been cancelled or turned into “quick e-mails”… then let me stay home and work from my laptop? LoL. I can sleep in, spend time with my dog, watch Anime, play video games, cook food, clean my house… I can (a) focus on my health; and (b) actually be doing something with my time. As opposed to driving to work, sitting in my office, waiting for the day to end, driving back home… and look at that… I didn’t get to sleep in, I didn’t get to spend time with the dog, and I did quite literally waste 9.5 hours of my day!

Last updated March 16, 2020