My Wife Was Fired For Following Our Stay At Home Order!

That this can happen is crazy.... I live in Texas, crazy is normal here.

MY WIFE WAS FIRED
On April 6^th of this year my wife was fired from her job for obeying our Governor’s stay home order in regards to the coronavirus, also known as CovId-19. My wife is was an administrative assistant for a small oil field company. A company whose personal department is run by one person who has completely refused to take the Pandemic Seriously.

WE WERE FOLLOWING THE GOVERNOR'S ORDERS
My wife and son are immunocompromised and we have several people over the age of 60 in our lives. She also had foreknowledge that her boss was not following shelter in place orders on her time off (the person in question actually lives down the block from us and we could see the activity at her house). Feeling she could not risk the exposure she told her boss that she was going to obey the stay in place order. She let her employer know she would be willing to do what work she could at home and would come in after-hours with her own personal protective equipment and take care of her duties then. This was not good enough for the employer and she was terminated.


THE DALLAS HAIR STYLIST GETS $500
So anti-lockdown extremists were able to raise over $500,000 for this lady who openly defied the law and put people in danger in a matter of days? The entire fine was $7k. Texas Senator Ted Cruz went and got his hair cut as a show of solidarity? Shelly Luther openly defied Governor Abbott's order and in this crazy place called Texas he is now on her side?

WAS THE ORDER LEGAL?
I have seen conservative after conservative claim that the Governor's orders were illegal because they didn't go through the legislature.  One friend going so far as to post a message on Facebook that is supposedly from a constitutional lawyer (although no names or credentials are ever listed - I thought these guys hate anonymous sources) Everyone is a constitutional expert on Facebook, however, a quick search of Texas law shows the legislature has specifically granted the governor those powers. Emergency orders carry the full weight of the law. 

WHAT GETS ME IS THE SUPPORT
As I said above a Go FundMe set up for Shelly Luther has raised over $500,000 dollars... for a $7000 dollar fine. It's an incredible amount of support for someone who broke the law and put people in danger. People like my wife, who was fired for following the law don't get that kind of support. Or, if they do, I haven't seen it. We set up a GoFund once to get about 20 stray feral cats fixed... I couldn't find any support at all.

I JUST WANT OUT OF TEXAS

It's crazy here. The support for a president who claimed there were 15 cases and soon there will be none back in March is literally insane. He verifiably botched the handling of this pandemic and in Texas they still love him. Someday we will find a way to get out of Texas. We were going to try to sell our house but it dropped $75k in value after the oil field crash and by the time we fixed it up enough to sell we wouldn't have enough left to move. I have to find a way out of this state though, I don't belong in a place where someone is handed $500k for breaking the law. 

I JUST DON"T GET IT
I really truly don't.

Here's the short reason why trickle down economics just doesn't work... not ever.

Economic growth is based on demand for products and services. When you take money from the poor and middle class to feed the rich you give them less ability to buy what the rich are selling. In the long run, trickle-down economics is bad for everyone, even the rich.

Give a man who has everything $100 what does he do with it? He already has everything (stagnation). Give that $100 to a man who is poor and he has no choice but to reinvest (growth created by demand). Take away all his money and he has no choice but to try and take it back (crime).

In the long run it the tax breaks to the rich stop mattering. If we can't buy their products the money eventually dries up. A tax break without the revenue to back it up does no good. If they actually did use it to create jobs that would be one thing, but they don't, or at least they don't create them here. They don't feed the economy, they hoard it.

In fact, time and time again they somehow convince half of America the poor are the problem.

But for the rich it works for a while... even though time after time it has been proven to be unsustainable in the long run. And the politicians they own will help them make you believe it works because from the rich man's hand to the politician's pocket is the only time it does.

Hey, lets give guns to teachers! That'll stop this shit....

Wow. Lots of people calling for arming teachers. Even the President Trumplestiltskin is pushing for it on twitter. He thinks that, "....If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school."

I guess some schools are even doing it..

Sounds like just a fantastic idea right?... or at least a great way to sell more guns...

A few things this plan doesn't take into account though:

• We don't even pay our teachers and schools enough to be able to afford supplies. In fact, the tax deduction that teachers who itemized used to be able to get fo buying supplies is gone thanks to the Republican's new tax scam overhaul. So where will the money for these guns and the tactical training for an active shooter situation come from?
• There are 100s of cases of physical abuse by teachers on students each year. In many cases, this is barely investigated or punished. (I'm talking about hitting, not the cases of inappropriate contact) What if one of these armed teachers snaps? How many students can he or she shoot before another armed teacher puts him or her down?
• What happens if the teacher misses and hits another innocent student? I don't think many districts could survive that kind of lawsuit. What happens to that teacher? Fired for doing what he was supposed to try and do? Can he live with that guilt? Would any parent want their child in his classroom ever again?
• You would have all the same possible problems with armed security. Even vets can miss firing into a crowd. Even if someone has active shooter and hostage training there is no guarantee they won't miss.
• Will a teacher even be able to fire at a child they once taught? Can a teacher coldly put one in the head and two in the chest of a child they were teaching just days before? Can they recover after they've done so? 

And what about Mr.Trumplesteins claim that a "sicko shooter" would never attack that school? 9 times out of 10 these shooters take their own lives. They are resigned to die before they ever start their rampage. They almost always go after their own school. They want to die and they want to see how many they can take with them, but they don't want strangers. They are after revenge on those they think have done them wrong. Warning them that teachers are armed won't deter many of them if any.

I have to notice the right never even suggests the less lethal alternatives. Stun Guns, Tasers, Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets. At least then you'd have less chance of collateral damage.

But a better approach is to find these kids and help them before these situations occur, and find a way to keep the damn guns out of their hands in the first place.

The real way to arm our teachers is with the tools and training to teach them right, not to take them out!