As my friend's words sunk into the group, friend felt surprised by the expressions on the faces of these colleagues. They were all grim. No one spoke in response.
Why? Because the county had indicated an intent to close operations and not pay the non-elected staff employees. My friend's colleagues were afraid that if they did not follow this lead that they would be the subject of attack come re-election time.
My friend was horrified and could not believe that these colleagues only saw a "political problem." Friend could not believe that they failed to see the inhumanity of sending people home to be safe and then destroying that safety by not paying them.
Saving the Economy
In an USA Today article entitled, "Texas lieutenant governor suggest grandparents are willing to die for U.S. economy," Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 69, of Texas said:
"No one reached out to me and said, 'as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?'" Patrick said. "And if that's the exchange, I'm all in."[i]
Let's not mince words: this argument is Un-American, and cruel. Un-American because in the guise of "free choice" it pressures the old to self-sacrifice in favor of the young. Cruel and inhumane because it appeals to grandparental, sacrificial love, then falsely equates grandchildren with the American Economy. To suggest that the "American Economy," will somehow be destroyed if we try to save the old and sick is just not true.
What will destroy the economy is inhumane action in response to this crisis. The economy will do just fine if the people who have been forced out of work continue to get paid. And in our economy's public and private sector, there is more than enough wealth to accomplish this.
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