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A New Day in a Fearful America
Townhall.com ^ | May 11, 2020 | Gavin Wax

Posted on 05/11/2020 5:14:12 AM PDT by Kaslin

It’s a new day in America, that much is guaranteed. By now you’ve been told repeatedly how we’re living in a time like no other. Schools are empty, roads throughout most of our communities are quieter than normal, and the facemask fashion trends were certainly an unexpected twist to this year’s summer wardrobe. It is certainly a new day, but few would say things are better.

Much like America in the days and months following the attacks of September 11th, our friends, family, and neighbors are beginning to ask how far we need to go in order to win the war against the “Invisible enemy” as President Trump has described it. The cost of this war has already cut deep as nearly one in four American adults have found themselves forced out of work. Trillions of dollars in stimulus have been printed, certainly making the stock market appear healthier than ever while the working class has certainly felt anything but “stimulated.” When the price of a barrel of crude oil begins to match the price of items on the McDonald’s Dollar Menu, things are far, far from normal.

Sadly, the only “normal” behavior we can witness is currently coming from the halls of local courthouses, the chambers of state legislatures and governor’s mansions, as well as the quintessential smoke filled “representatives only” marked rooms in Congress. If Americans who witnessed the rise of the police state post-9/11 know one thing, it’s that power-hungry individuals scarcely ever let a good crisis go to waste.

Throughout the country, many Americans have already learned this the hard way. This past week in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s banana republic known as Michigan, a 77-year old barber opened his doors and let the community know he was ready for business. For this small, essentially non-consequential action, he could lose not only his business, but even his very liberty.

Karl Manke, a barber in the town of Owosso, woke up in a new America where his governor issued an executive order stating all “nonessential” businesses would have to close in order to stop the potential spread of the invisible enemy. For Manke, his barbershop was one of those “nonessential” businesses. The decree from up high however ignored an essential truth, that to manke, his shop was essential to his very livelihood.

“I was in despair,” Manke told a reporter from the Detroit News. “I don’t have anybody paying me unless I’m doing work.” As word got around that Manke was open for business, customers from towns over lined up for their first haircut in months since the pandemic began. Word also got around to local authorities. Masked police officers looking more like cops from HBO’s Watchmen than average cops, showed up at Manke’s shop on Wednesday to issue the senior citizen “a civil infraction and two misdemeanors,” said Lt. Eric Cherry of the Owosso Police Department. Manke’s court date is scheduled for June 23, and he faces a “$1,000 fine or more.”

This isn’t stopping him however. “I’m not going to close up unless they handcuff me and carry me out of here,” Manke said. “I’m making a living. If I have to spend it all on court costs, I’ll do it. I’ll recover.”

What a new day it is, where 77-year old barbers are now treated as common criminals because they refuse to starve.

Manke isn’t the only renegade with clippers in pandemic afflicted America. On Thursday, a salon owner across the country in Dallas, Texas defied Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders in the same way Manke did, but in her case she was jailed for 48 hours until Abbott directly intervened amid public outcry.

Shelley Luther, owner of Salon A La Mode, walked out a free woman and was welcomed by a crowd of supporters who too feel the current coronavirus safeguards have gone far enough. Luther refused to bend the knee by apologizing or promising to keep her business closed to a Dallas judge, who stated that by doing so, he would make an example of her by sending her to jail. By refusing to let her children starve and having the state stand between her and her livelihood, her short-lived jail stint became a rallying cry for Texans, as well as Americans across the country who refuse to let the America of tomorrow be less-free than the America of today.

Whether you think that flattening the curve at all costs is necessary for our long term well-being, or that crushing our otherwise booming economy will create circumstances far worse than any virus, we must ask ourselves now whether it’s worth making criminals out of our neighbors in order to combat an invisible enemy we still don’t completely understand.

Tomorrow is a new day in America, whether better or worse, there are no guarantees.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: civilliberties; policestate; reopening; wuhancoronavirus

1 posted on 05/11/2020 5:14:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Americans will never feel good again until they have put all the perps in jail.


2 posted on 05/11/2020 5:24:48 AM PDT by Rapscallion (Praise the lord and pass the ammunition.)
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Bump


3 posted on 05/11/2020 5:28:28 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Kaslin

more people will die from a continued lockdown than from the virus.

eviction for non-rent pymt or losing house for non-mortgage pymt.

your children mal-nourished

your health affected due to the expense you no longer can pay

a higher suicide rate

the Governors of Death are killing us by making us live like we live in a third world country

the Governors of Death who are inflicting this upon us must be over-ruled


4 posted on 05/11/2020 5:33:53 AM PDT by ChronicMA
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To: Kaslin

Too many people are unwilling to claim their piece of the American dream through the traditional means of risk taking, hard work and perseverance. Instead they rather be molly coddled by the state. They look to politicians for leadership in their everyday lives instead of standing on their own two feet. They buy into ever scare and hoax instead of being resolute in the knowledge that they can overcome, adapt and prosper despite all odds. Too many men have succumbed to political correctness and have become feminized. To be blunt, too many people have become wusses. These are not American citizens, but subjects of an administrate state. Subjects live in fear of their government and everything their government tells them to fear. Citizen put fear into government and that leads to freedom and liberty.


5 posted on 05/11/2020 6:21:44 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (It's official! I'm nominated for the 2020 Mr. Hyperbole and Sarcasm Award.)
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To: ChronicMA
eviction for non-rent pymt or losing house for non-mortgage pymt.

Read that in NY they extended the moratorium on evictions / foreclosures for another 2-3 months.

But they are coming. Especially evictions. Landlords are one group that has been hammered, if tenants are not paying rent.

6 posted on 05/11/2020 6:26:40 AM PDT by Fury
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To: Kaslin

So many are weak nervous Nellies. Frightened and panicked is no way to live. Toughen up , America .


7 posted on 05/12/2020 5:06:20 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp???)
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