What if what you do to survive Kills the things you love?
I generally enjoy observing the inevitable fallout wrought from a vast irony, but not this time. There’s nothing gratifying about watching local pediatric wards fill up with sick kids to the point that some of them have to be shipped downstate to get treatment.
And COVID ain’t the issue this round, either. Well…at least not directly.
This time the culprit is RSV or “respiratory syncytial virus” which, in a typical flu season, produces cold-like symptoms, that on rare occasion, can lead to breathing difficulties. But in this wholly atypical year, RSV is overwhelming ERs and forcing hospitals to turn away juvenile patients in droves.
As you might imagine, most local newspapers and their affiliated “journalists” are doing their best avoid mentioning the root cause because they don’t want to have to admit it was their persistent pandemic panic porn that, in great part, led to the pointless remote learning and mandated school mask wearing that created the very reality they were railing against.
But if you avail yourself of any reasonable health care website like this one, the answer is abundantly clear. Per Dr. Helene Feltzman, a pediatrician at a Tuscon multispecialty children’s clinic, “We suspect it’s due to people being exposed to one another after a long period when we were all staying home and consistently wearing masks.”
So, not only did remote learning and mask wearing set children back years developmentally, but unnecessarily depriving them of the opportunity to develop the robust immune systems required to effectively tackle the average winter bug is taking a rather severe toll.
Of course, the ignominious irony of the COVID mitigations filling hospital beds with sick children is exactly what can happen when the “experts” and politicians ignore decades of science to politicize a pandemic response. Not that they’ll be accepting responsibility for their role is this debacle any time soon.
This sad scenario also answers the question, “What damage can mask wearing do?” It’s fine for adults, but now we’re facing a generation of children with compromised immune systems that will deleteriously affect their health for years, if not decades, to come. The further irony there is that they were at no risk of dying from COVID-19 to begin with.
I’ll say it again! The “mitigations” led to EXACTLY the overwhelmed hospital bed reality that they were purported to prevent, and I will NOT be voting for any candidate who supported remote learning, lockdowns, and mask wearing. I certainly hope you’ll follow suit.
Sometimes the judicial selection process works!
Along the lines of our previous story, considering the incredible impact they have on our daily lives, it baffles me how the local papers haven’t as much as mentioned that two 16th Circuit associate judgeships are up for appointment. Over 40 Kane County attorneys applied for those coveted seats, too.
The First Ward has previously covered how the associate judge selection process tends to distill applicants down to the least objectionable, and thus, the least capable possibilities. That’s how Kane County ended up with subpar judges like Sandra Parga and Divya Sarang.
To refresh your memories, associate judges are elected by, and serve at the behest of, a majority vote of their 14 full circuit peers. Conversely, circuit judges must win at least one election and regularly be retained by Kane County’s 300,000 plus voters.
But this late 2022 whittling down the field process has proven to be quite the pleasant surprise by producing two, and possibly three, stellar candidates.
The first is attorney Kim DiGiovanni who has clearly demonstrated the kind of temperament and comportment required to don the black dress.
My overarching issue with most of these finalists has been that they lack the well-rounded background necessary to be an effective magistrate. Most served solely as prosecutors, others toiled uniquely as public defenders or defense attorneys, and very few have run, or at least been a part of, a successful private practice.
But that’s exactly where Kim shines because she’s done it all. That means she could walk into any civil, criminal, or family law courtroom on day one and get the job done.
The second is Kane County juvenile prosecutor Lark Cowart, who’s resume is similar to DiGiovanni’s. I had the privilege of working with Lark as the prosecutor on my 2016 pickup truck firebombing, so I can tell you firsthand that she’s tough, fair, smart, and insightful.
Dealing with the adult prosecution in that case was a nightmare. But Lark not only listened to what I had to say, but she made sure my voice was heard and we worked together to see that justice was served even after the final verdict. Lark is one of the few Kane County ASAs I would think twice about going up against in a court of law.
With all due respect to our third candidate, civil attorney Larry Lobb, I hadn’t heard a thing about him until he made the semi-final cut, which generally means he must be doing a good job.
But it’s the fourth applicant, felony prosecutor Bill Engerman, that we can do without.
The First Ward has already discussed how his propensity for sexual harassment evolved into a habit for berating female ASAs, as well as his capacity for losing his cool in court should automatically disqualify him from any judicial appointment.
To make matters worse, Engerman has never been anything but a prosecutor and that lack of perspective will turn him into the kind of “mass incarcerations work” judge that Bob Spence became before he retired. As one local attorney put it, “Bill Engerman will quickly develop a severe case of robe-itis,” and we already have more than enough of that kind of ego on the bench.
Should Engerman make the final cut I’ll be very disappointed.
Unlike it is with the impending November election, there’s nothing we can do to directly affect the associate judge selection process, but it’s important to understand the process and to note that two great candidates made it to the semifinal finish line.
