Shelley Luther is a Hero and a Patriot

Across the nation heavy handed Governors and even mayors  have abused their emergency powers by forcing citizens and legal residents to close their safe and legal businesses indefinitely while we wait out a virus which theoretically may never have a vaccine or treatment. They have, without any science, picked political winners and losers based on the perception of what is and is not considered a “safe business.” Making matters even more sinister, they have left open businesses which they believe will ensure people are less likely to complain about being imprisoned in their homes with restricted movements. For example: liquor stores and take out dining were considered “essential” only to keep us silent. Not because any science suggests they are more safe. 

Enter Shelley Luther. Shelley owns a salon in Dallas called Salon A La Mode. Her business was forced to close under illegal orders from Texas Governor Greg Abbot and local lawmakers in Dallas. Like many small business owners across the country, Shelley didn’t have the margins to float her business through a total shutdown for three months. In mid-April, she realized if she didn’t open she would lose everything and her household would lose its income meaning mortgage/rent wouldn’t be paid, food wouldn’t be bought and utilities would go into arrears. 

Aside from her children and family’s basic needs like food and shelter (which on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs come before health), those items going unpaid have a major ripple effect. Banks/landlords rely on regular payments from their loans in order to float everyone else’s loans and leases. Stores then wholesalers then farmers need families to continue buying their products in order to continue producing and employing. Local governments are suffering under the shutdowns and lost revenues from unemployed individuals unable to pay their local fees on water and sewer are stacking up to staggering figures. Losing one small business and one household income represents a tenfold impact on the community from lost revenues elsewhere. 

The left doesn’t see it that way. To the left, Shelley is a silly, frivolous soccer mom who just wants to have her hair cut and “let them eat cake.” Forget that Shelley is actually a single mother who relies on working income to support her family as opposed to a salaried government employee who can work from their couch with no fear of a lifestyle change, the left wants you to think Shelley is an embarrassment who should be shunned from the inner sanctum of society. 

It’s not just the Twitter morality police who wanted Shelley to comply for the sake of compliance alone – a district court judge, Eric Moye, tried to force Shelley to say she was “selfish” and apologize for keeping her business open to stay out of jail. I guess Moye believes that his role as a keeper of the law is to try to shame and embarrass people he doesn’t like very much (Vote Jessica Lewis instead if you’re from Texas!). 

Shelley is actually one of the leaders of a grassroots movement in Texas made up of business owners who believe that all businesses are essential (which if you know anything about the economy and how businesses are formed via market and demand then you know the truth that all businesses are essential to the economy). Her lack of willingness to comply for the sake of compliance (she was following hygienic measures in her salon) and more importantly her refusal to apologize and bow to a tyrant judge make her a true patriot who we should all strive to be more like. 

Lucky for Shelley, Governor Abbot knew the political ramifications of allowing her to be jailed. The protests are already heating up across the nation, and this was a high profile martyr that Texas didn’t need. However, Shelley didn’t do this just for her salon. Millions of Americans are going without work and Shelley is an attractive white woman in Texas who received a lot of media attention. She knew she could risk being jailed for a few days in order to make a bigger impact for those who cannot. Meanwhile, minority workers are being jailed for upwards of six months for similar “crimes” in operating a business. 

As an example, in another Texas case, two young latina-Texans (Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia, 31, and Brenda Stephanie Mata, 20) were allowing their customers to come to their home to get their nails done. Their neighbors, now being trained by the government to report the bad bad quarantine breakers to the cops, called the police on them. Instead of just coming by for a check-up, the cops chose to entrap the two tiny non-violent young women trying to pay their bills by pretending to be customers then arresting them. The girls were given misdemeanor charges and sentenced with up to 180 days. No one did anything for those girls until Shelley got arrested. That’s when Gov. Abbot also included them in his release order. Thanks to Shelley – those girls got justice. They too are patriots and heroes – they just needed people like them to stand with them. 

This isn’t about perms and dyes. This is about the very fabric of who we are as a nation. Be like Shelley. Don’t be like the neighbors of those girls.