On April 6th 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.
