Notes from my Knapsack 3-18-21

Notes from my Knapsack 3-18-21

Jeff Gill

What do I have to do?

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Whether it's a stop sign or a face covering, there is law and there is consensus.

Ohio Revised Code or Village Codified Ordinances alike, we have a body of law that can be enforced, but few of us have read those source documents, and we work from a day by day basis on a set of understandings that are part of our local culture, perhaps a result of our upbringing, and frankly can carry with them a wide variety of misunderstandings.

When I spent a long stretch in the honorable duty of homeowner association president, I had many conversations where people were certain that certain things were law that were not. Usually, it was because a certain practice or rule or guideline was true in Santa Barbara, CA or Easton, MD but not in Granville, OH. And I work across the county with school principals who will tell me things that I have the sad obligation of telling them are not true, even if they're correct for Beavercreek or Parma in other school districts of Ohio.

Local option is a very big thing in Ohio, and where in some states a policy in one county is true for all, you'd better not assume that here. Which makes state gatherings of all sorts of professions a challenge, as we share wisdom and best practices that often simply can't be carried across county lines. Townships and judges and school boards have autonomy in a wide variety of areas, and that's how we seem to like it.

So the governor and other state boards and panels have less sway over community decision making than you might think, especially if you came here from somewhere else. And the year of health orders in many states that we've recently experienced, or as some wags say "the first anniversary of 14 days to slow the spread," now behind us, leaves many legislatively minded people wanting to further limit the authority of governors and health commissioners from issuing instructions that can be enforced, which is the basic definition most of us have for a "law." You can call them administrative code or county status announcements, but if a law enforcement officer can enforce it, with fines or force or both, most of us just call it a law.

And understandably, the legislature wants to protect their prerogative to make law by limiting the law-like actions the chief executive officers of the state and cities and counties can issue, certainly when they're for longer than it takes for snow to melt or floodwaters to fall.

Pandemics represent a new challenge for the usual legal perspective on emergency orders. Can you have an emergency that lasts a year and more? Arguably, yes, we just had or are still having one. It's not permanent, even the most worried and cautious will concede that, but 14 days and 30 days and 100 days are now well past 365. How do we govern ourselves in an ongoing emergency? This is the discussion we're in the middle of right now.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's mindful of the old saying about what not to do if you appreciate either law or sausages. Tell him what you think we need in the mid at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.