What About the Judges?

 

I asked rhetorically at our last Commission Meeting:  When will our state's Judges under age 65 be offered COVID-19 Vaccination?

As the efforts to vaccinate the maximum number of citizens nationwide accelerates, some very essential workers are apparently being overlooked.  Of course, everybody knows the most vulnerable citizens, in care homes, immunocompromised, and over 65 years of age needed the shot yesterday.  And locally we are hitting that target, with greater than 50% of the citizens over 65 being inoculated against COVID-19.

But now as I read about the next group of citizens eligiblefor shots—including teachers and some other professions with members over age 50—I still don’t see the state’s Judges listed.

They really have nobody pulling for them. Apparently, nobody is advocating for them.  I certainly don’t speak for them---but I am writing this because I believe there may be a HUGE glaring blind-spot that’s shifting focus away from this essential, yet miniscule, cohort of essential state workers.

Judges.

They get overlooked all the time; folks really don’t think about them.  It is esoteric, what they do and how they do it.  When important ceremonies occur, they don’t get the invite.  When they happen to attend important functions—I have witnessed hosts of such events trip over themselves to recognize every other elected official in attendance in such venues—and NOT recognize judges.  They are oftentimes an afterthought--unless one is summoned to appear before a judge. They’re severely restricted in what they can do socially, what they can say politically, and how they must comport themselves publicly.  Most folks do not realize what a person gives up in terms of privacy and privileges when he/she becomes a Judge.  But that’s a whole different topic.  I would certainly have not known much about judges and what they do had my only brother not become one.  But I do have a unique vantage point though- in that my brother has been a circuit court judge here locally for nearly the last decade and a half.  And we talk frequently.  Multiple times weekly.

So far as I have been told—the 16 judges seated in Escambia County under age 65 have not been offered the shot.  “Well why should they get one?”, folks might question sternly.

Here is an example of why:  Just one, and it is personal.   I am hyper-attenuated to this pandemic as one of my closest, best friends, Brad Crager, died of COVID-19 in January.  He was healthy, yet it took him out after an agonizing 2-week hospitalization out in Southern California.  We worked together when I was in college, we were friends for over 30 years. He was like a brother to me.

Then, last week, my only real brother, Gary,  fell ill.  My only brother.  He got really sick.  Fever, chills, and a high temperature.  He was out of it.  He had not/has not been inoculated for COVID-19.  I was worried.

But looking beyond my own concern for a loved one—this illness and related several days quarantine for the COVID-19 test’s results to come back meant 60 jury trials on his docket had to be cancelled.  Sixty of them.  Attorneys, defendants, witnesses, victims, jurors, and public officials were all delayed.  Attorneys from around the country had to reshuffle their schedules, support staff, security-everyone’s schedule was upended.  What about folks scheduled to appear who took personal leave from their jobs to attend?  Now, they will have to take even more precious, valuable leave for these rescheduled trials.

Prisoners in our jail that may have been released—had to stay in Jail.

How much did this one, minor, three-day delay cost?  Who knows, but it costs a lot.

Thankfully, my brother is fine, he tested negative and he is back on the bench.  Had he been given the

shot—perhaps he could have worked through the symptoms with a reassuring knowledge that it was not COVID-19?  But he hasn’t got the shot-so care and precaution had to be the priority.

While we understand the importance of all the “front-line” grocery workers, firemen, police officers, nurses, and teachers wanting to be inoculated---let’s not forget about judges who are still dealing with the public day in and day out and need vaccination, too.

And ask yourself this:

What would the cost in time, money, and aggravation be if multiple judges simultaneously got sick all around the state—because they were not considered essential enough to get a shot—put at the back of the line behind other professions like 24-year old supermarket shelf-stockers?

Yes, we are all created equal, and we are all equal. 

But when looking at the big picture and pulling back to make key decisions on who gets a shot and when/why—we have to make certain we are making good decisions and not neglecting that narrow slice of folks who keep the justice system moving as quickly as possible.

Make no mistake—when this Pandemic passes, and it will, the vaccination programs will be studied.  Who got the shot, when, why, and how?  Did some folks jump the line due to their power or positions?  Was it the “Titanic Lifeboat” tragedy—where “some” took the lifeboat slot while women and children drowned, or worse yet were clubbed to death as they desperately sought reprieve in a lifeboat and were denied? 

Will that be found to have happened when this COVID-19 vaccination rollout gets a post-mortem examination?  Think.

And while we are all thinking and prioritizing, let’s not forget the lynchpin players in the justice system who cannot speak nor advocate for their own benefit; if they are absent the ramifications will ripple through our state like a cracking, about to shatter windshield of a loaded semi-truck on a crowded freeway hit by a rock.

Metaphorically speaking.