Assistant Prosecutor, Civil Division

For 16 years and five months my job was generally the least exciting job of anyone in my office. Sure, there were occasional moments of great satisfaction that made it worth the seemingly endless string of nonsense "legal questions" I was expected to answer. The time I played a part in assisting the elderly woman who was trapped alone in her bed while her "guardian" checked on her twice a day...the time I played a part in rehabilitating the neighborhood so that raw sewage no longer flowed into the creek...the time I assisted the township to build a new garage and town hall...and a few others...

But normally the bulk of my job has consisted of administrative enforcement of regulations that a lot of people don't understand the need for (unless/until they need it to protect their own interests)...and answering questions about how local government is to operate. Who buries the indigent? can a township transfer money from one fund to another? is this or that subject to open meetings/public records laws? can a township sell excavated ditch dirt for profit? It is, most definitely, not headline grabbing material.

And then came the COVID-19 global pandemic. GLOBAL. The problems affecting us are affecting everyone. And people look to me for answers. ME! hahahahahaha! (ok...sorry for that mini breakdown there)

Public health regulations aren't new...and they affect just about every aspect of your life without you usually noticing. Your neighbor can't dump his/her sewage onto your property. Why? Public health regulation. Your water company has to provide you with potable water. Why? Public health regulation. The guy making your cheeseburger has to wear a hair net over his hair and/or beard. Why? Public health regulation. The guy giving you a tattoo has to use clean needles. Why? Yep...you guessed it...public health regulation.

And public health orders during times of contagious illness outbreak? Yeah...those have been in our laws for decades (centuries in some regards). In Ohio, the authority is found in Title 37 of the Revised Code. Chapters 3707 and 3709 are like old friends at this point. These are mechanisms by which public health identifies and corrects threats to the general population. At the risk of delivering a lecture on the appropriate uses of governmental authority, let's just say that the control of infectious disease is considered a legitimate public interest.

90,000 Americans are dead. 26 of them from my county.

And people don't seem to care.

I'm at a loss how to keep doing my job after this.

What's the point?

If people die and nobody cares...the rest seems like a waste of time.

Welcome to my mid-life crisis.