Written by: Norma Gonzalez
Edited by: Kirk Shelton
With the re-opening of the State of Texas, each county has had tough decisions to face with regards to an honest review of their choices in expert leadership , valued research, and elected constituents. The time has arrived to evaluate how the local health precautions have panned out to the detriment or for the benefit of the community.
Harris County is the largest county in all of Texas, home of nearly 4 million people and the largest medical center in the world. So why is it that we are also leading in COVID-19 deaths, and leading by more than double any other county in Coronavirus cases? Considering that the number of deaths in the US alone have gone from roughly 25,000 to over 55,000 in 12 days, this is cause for concern, and should incite us into taking more precautions. Yet, if we escape quarantine to drive around anywhere, it’s clear that the opposite is happening. People are gathering in parks, in grocery store parking lots, in their driveways, all under the impression that we are going back to normal because of statements given by Governor Greg Abbott, who has given the okay to slowly open the state back up.
Locally, our County Judge Lina Hidalgo is attempting to look out for the most vulnerable while also adding critical insight and value by urging us to stay home and recently mandating the use of masks or available face coverings to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This has caused criticism with City Council members such as Amy Peck from District A, and Mike Knox, City Council Member for At Large 1, and the Houston Police Officers Union, an organization that has described Hidalgo as draconian, panicked, and immoral, while asserting that she lacks critical thinking skills, has horrific leadership qualities, and makes poor echo-chamber decisions. These were all taken from their official public statements, which you can review for yourselves below.
As council members and the HPOU have mentioned, there is still a need to wear masks in order to protect the health of our communities; however they also believe that relying on voluntary compliance is working. It is hard to admit that anyone who goes outside where there are people walking around will know that this form of disobedience is quite common; a large number of people are not taking the face covering precautions very seriously. Something of note that’s also mentioned is the rise in crime, mainly murders stemming from domestic violence and burglaries, arguably caused by poverty and desperation in this pandemic that has left many of us jobless, with no healthcare, with no real support or solutions. Our local authorities and government should not be condemning us, rather they should be working together, helping us, helping each other, providing masks, hand sanitizer, and other protective gear. Not to mention the other things necessary to survive such as food, water, non-perishables, etc. , while challenging each other to provide the best possible solutions for this countrywide crisis. It’s also in their best interest to set all political differences aside during a pandemic and instead continue using the advice of healthcare experts; all while keeping the public’s best interest and health in mind, not solely our economy which can be salvaged by the familiar corporate bailouts as we’ve become accustomed to for big companies and billionaires alike.
We also would like to point out the unnecessary language that was used against Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, language that implies a clearly biased perspective of her as professional, containing a complete disregard for her moral integrity. We also noticed a high tone of patronizing, self-entitled jabs at her “ experience”, leaving her no room to act in a way that would warrant the “emotionally-based” decisions of late (in the unilateralized perspective of these other officers…)
In these diatribes/ad hominems that only intend to hurt the public image of Judge Hidalgo, we can see the typical bandwagon narrative of thinking or categorizing millennials in a similar fashion., For some of the aforementioned generations, millennials are referred to as progressives simply because we were born in a time where there was a massive change in everyday tasks due to the rise of technology. Their idea of being more prone to understand and use technology is somehow linked to our “progressiveness”, and we all know how certain groups have poisoned the moral values with the typical “snowflake, too emotional, not based in facts” rhetoric. Frankly, they are all done with the unilateralization of their own politics and failure to comply with the defense of maintaining the order and justice in our society in the most effective manner.
Even though some of them delivered good justifications, perspectives and points that differed from those of Judge Lina Hidalgo, all of them have ignored studies and warnings that the CDC and WHO have made in order to avoid a 2nd wave of COVID-19 sparcion.
It all comes back to the normalized, “anti-millennial” attitude that people have with young professionals when they acquire higher positions.
What Judge Hidalgo should do is try to find ways to alleviate the criticism she receives for punishing civilians for not using masks. Police officers should give them out to those who need them, or at least have certain businesses set up inside of malls & city buildings giving away those masks. She should propose some regulations to keep us all safe to avoid a second wave of COVID-19 cases, perhaps not by punishing us but by promoting specific types of businesses that can contribute to a healthier environment, including cleaning businesses, office supply stores that print social distance stickers, and also manufacturers of masks and hand sanitizer.
Even though issuing a fine of doing community service would keep people occupied while learning how to be better civilians, there is hope that it would actually begin changing societal views on the culture as a whole. No matter what, we all should just wash our hands every chance we get to ensure that we are being sanitary and avoid the spread of germs that could be deadly.
In a recent poll we conducted with other millenials, it appears that more than 70% of us do not feel safe going out and seeing other individuals not wearing masks, as it poses a risk and continues to expose us to the virus. We ask everyone to take precaution, to listen to the experts, and to urge our government officials to work together to avoid more COVID-19 cases and fatalities.
Peck and Knox are racists. Period its not about her being young.
Peck is beyond a disgrace to District A.
Garmardi is a racist off brand pee wee herman that should be fired. I think Lina is doing the best she can and I support her.