by Eric Lendrum
A salon owner in Frisco, Texas has been arrested after defying the government shutdown to reopen her salon, according to the New York Times.
Shelley Luther, who owns the Salon A La Mode, reopened her business on April 24th, after it had been closed for an entire month. On the same day, police officers arrived at her business and handed her a citation, pressuring her to re-close the salon. She was subsequently sent a cease-and-desist letter by a judge in Dallas County; on April 25th, while appearing at a lockdown protest, Luther publicly tore up the cease-and-desist letter.
Luther was eventually forced to appear in court, with Judge Eric Moye of the 14th Civil District Court presiding. The case was heard via Zoom, with Judge Moye wearing a mask.
In a video that has since gone viral, Judge Moye asks Luther to apologize to her elected officials and acknowledge that she was wrong in order to avoid jail time, telling her that “failure to do so will only have catastrophic consequences.” Luther refused to do so, asserting that her decision to reopen her business, for the sake of “feeding [her] kids,” was not selfish. “If you think the law’s more important than kids getting fed,” Luther fired back, “then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon.”
Moye subsequently declared Luther to be “criminally and civilly in contempt,” and was sentenced to a week in jail and a fine of $3,500.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
There you and your ilk go, trying to play God again! Or is it that someone died and made you king!
To that salon owner’s children and family, she is essential! It’s up to each and everyone of us to make decisions for ourselves. If the salon owners opens, her safety is up to her to handle. If customers decide to use the salon’s services, it’s up to them to practice safe behavior.
While I would love to see my local barber shop reopen as I have not had a chance to cut my hair since the start of the nation-wide shut-down, I have to still reluctantly support the closure of salons and barber shops because, unlike ambulance drivers, grocery store clerks, fire-fighters, city bus drivers, restaurants that provide take-out food, and so forth, barber/salon-keepers are not essential employees. I can live without a haircut even though I desperately want one, but I cannot live without a roof over my head, health insurance, and the like. The lack of open salons and barbershops is not a life-or-death situation for me, but the closure of the REAL essential jobs that I have listed above WOULD be a disaster if they closed down. When ever I hear people whine about closed football stadiums, closed golf courses, closed beaches, closed drag-racing strips, or closed shopping malls, I think such people are, at the very least, misguided and, at the worst, EXTREMELY selfish.
You conservatives better start putting people (tax-payers and essential workers) above profits. We need to lower the boom on greedy plutocrats like Mitch McConnell, greedy insurance companies, power-hungry militarists, racist/homophobic thugs, and crooked lawmakers who do inside trading like the two Georgia U.S. Senators! Why should plutocratic profiteers get to rob the U.S. Treasury while the average American cannot find affordable health care, pay her or his rent/utilities on time, etc.?
It’s high time to put PEOPLE over PROFITS! Quit being selfish and unpatriotic!