Welcome The Reckless Endangerment of Children under 12 by a “Leader”
Governor Abbott Protects Himself But Not My Child For the Sake of Freedom
While only a tiny fraction of children under 12 who can’t get a vaccine may end up in the hospital and ICU wards when school starts in Texas on August 23, 2021 in many parts of the state, the lack of even allowing school distracts to have a masked mandate is fundamentally evil.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sits isolated in his governor’s mansion with covid for two weeks while school starts. But he is vaccinated as the New York Times just reported. Double vaccinated. Protected and now receiving therapies in the form of antibodies to boast his immune system. There are students with immune systems that have problems, and one my neighbors told me her son had such a system. She was forced to keep him home last year when I soke with her at the bus stop before isolating in March 2020.
Children in New Jersey are in the hospital, some with serious covid related problems. The Democratic governor came out strongly for a mandate. For the parents of those unprotected children in the hospital, I feel for you. I have one daughter just twelve who got her second shot today. But I have one daughter starting on Monday in Texas who is 10 and unable to get protected. Masks are optional.
12 or 13 children might not seem like many, and in a loud boisterous state like Texas, the suffering of a couple handfuls of children will be drowned out by those chanting that freedom is worth the sacrifice. Just like Attorney General Ken Paxton said last year when he was willing to sacrifice himself and grandparents for the sake of keeping the economy open. ““Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick said on Fox News.” Freedom wins, a few children die. Tucker Carlson will defend you Governor Abbott and Mr. Paxton Who is protected by the vaccine my child can’t get.
But I stop and think about my colleague at work in another state. Her daughter about the same age as my child died of COVID. It was truly heartbreaking and senseless. A single mother losing her only child while she survives. Is the difficulty of wearing a facemask worth it?
Would I go against Governor Abbott and impose a mask mandate in my school district and wear a face mask myself to save one child? Well, I would. The black superintendent of the Houston school district decided with the board would and did. But the superintendent of my school district is a white man.
Not that that race matters, I shouldn’t bring ethnicity or gender into it. He could just be scared of Governor Abbott. He could be buckling under the weight of his lawyers who don’t want to spend money protecting themselves. He could be worried about the ‘blowback’ from the parents. He seems like good man. Walk in the hallways, don’t speak out of turn, do what your teacher says.
But the Governor is oblivious promoting ‘freedom’ to choose and showing support for the anti-vaxx wing. He is inflaming his party while he himself is double vaccinate and getting special treatment. He is reckless letting children unprotected walk maskless into a cloud of covid when the first school bell rings. He has fanned these flames while his state’s hospitals overflow. When the first child enters them, will he send a get-well card?
Does he even know what empathy and responsivity mean?
