THANKSGIVING 2020

 At first blush a Thanksgiving 2020 message would appear to be a difficult missive to write.  The task this year is easier than it seems. 

Adversity brings gratitude into sharp focus. 

We are grateful that we live in a country that publicizes its faults. We learn through our collective errors. We do not hide nor shy from our mistakes. This is a good thing. 

We are thankful for our health. We have not been struck by the novel Corona virus and no one we care about has lost their life to this insidious virus. 

We are thankful that we have devoted much of our life to a legal system that in Miami-Dade County is superbly led. In Federal Court Judge Moore has done the correct thing and limited court hearings and suspended jury trials down until they can safely resume in April. Meanwhile hearings continue via Zoom, cases are filed via complaints, and many are speedily resolved. 

In State Court we have  indominable leaders in Judge Soto and Judge Sayfie in Criminal Court, Judge Bailey in Civil Court,  Judge Prescott in the Unified Children's Division, Judge Bernstein in Family Court, and Judge Colodny in Probate Court (wherever that is). These leaders have not only held our court system together, sometimes with nothing more than sheer will, but they have done it with grace, dignity, and an unyielding devotion to the simple belief that in the United States the rule of law matters. 

We are thankful and grateful that these dedicated men and women stepped into the dark maw of  Covid,  at unknown personal risk during those early months. They did whatever was necessary so that the citizens of Miami knew the rule of law continued unabated in a time of crisis. 

Judge Soto and her team had no playbook. There was no history or precedent on how to keep a court system up and running during a deadly pandemic. Our Judges succeeded, confident we are sure, only in their steadfast belief that failure was not an option. 

We have had our differences with those who wear black robes to work. And we cannot wait for the day when we have those differences again. When we walk into court and deal with a petulant, scowling, pompous judge. Only when that day in the near future occurs,  we will pause briefly and refrain momentarily from cursing  their obvious lack of legal knowledge should they fail to see things our way. In that blink of an eye we will remember the true character of these men and women and how they never quit and held the line when dawn was far away and all anyone could see was a dark and vile pandemic stretching over the horizon.  

And then, life having returned to normal, we will sneer at their misguided ruling, happy that we can again return to doing what we do best. 

We leave you, as we usually do on Thanksgiving, with the greatest four minutes in the history of Thanksgiving on Television: The Classic WKRP Turkey Drop episode.