Republicans just don’t give a damn
Here are two riddles. First riddle: Name three ways Texas and Mississippi are alike. Governors in both states have terribly mishandled power and water crises caused by extreme cold, both dropped their states’ COVID-19 mask mandates March 3 and both are Republicans who do not give one damn about the lives of the people in their states – or other states since COVID ignores all boundaries. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has also invited maskless diners indoors to fill up restaurants. Second riddle: How do we stop these states from self-immolating?
Texans are stuck with an extremely callous Republican-run state government. Other states have faced similar maliciousness, such as during the water crisis in Flint, Michigan under Republican Governor Rick Snyder. They have now traded him for the brave, compassionate Gretchen Whitmer. During the worst of the Texas power grid failure, nearly 4.5 million Texans struggled without heat for up to four days and thirteen million residents had no clean drinking water for over a week from 800 disrupted water systems. Hundreds in central Texas still don’t have running water.
The grim smell of fear and death hangs in the Texas air. As of March 2, there have been at least 2,668,067 COVID-19 cases and 44,345 deaths in Texas since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database. The new COVID variants are floating around Texas right now. Texas has averaged 200 deaths a day over the past week. Dining maskless indoors and sporting about on spring break will bring on another wave of COVID deaths. Abbott is lifting the mask mandate to distract Texans’ fury over the power grid failure and he is appeasing his right-wing supporters who reject masks as liberal declarations.
According to medical examiners it may be 30 – 90 days before we will know the total deaths from the power grid failure, most caused by hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning. As many as eighty deaths have been attributed to the winter storm so far, but authorities say this number will climb much higher. Each death during this terrible period was an unnecessary tragedy – whether an 11-year-old boy found dead in bed by his mother, three people dying in a house fire from burning something to keep warm, a couple found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in their car or a homeless person yet to be discovered.
Good state leadership protects the people and plans for eventualities. Abbott is cold-bloodedly ignoring the staggering COVID-19 death count and the anxiety Texans have lived with for a full year as he now attempts to manipulate his voter base in preparation for the gubernatorial race in 2022. He is disregarding advice from Rochelle Walensky, the new Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also overlooking the plight of the nurses, already worn out from nursing COVID patients, who collected and melted snow to flush hospital toilets when the pipes froze.
