Protection during voting?
On Thursday, July 9, 2020, I exercised my right to vote at the Hays County Early Voting Precinct at Roger Hanks Parkway in Dripping Springs. The man in front of me was not wearing a mask. This caused me great consternation, so when I got home, I looked up Governor Abbott’s mask requirement.
It appears that Governor Abbott thought that the COVID-19 situation was grave enough to warrant making a requirement to wear masks in public, but voters are expendable. Masks are not required in voting precincts.
With Texas posting record number of new COVID-19 cases almost daily, is Governor Abbott saying that voting precincts have some magical qualities that we don’t know about? Texas has blocked the ability to vote by mail in the upcoming November election, and they are also going to roll the dice with voters’ lives.
Do we really want people with so little regard for human life to be making decisions on our behalf?
Wake up, Texas! Voting is your right! You should be entitled to exercise your rights without endangering your lives. Gregg Abbott is a public servant. Let him know you want to be protected while exercising your right to vote.
Eda Haynes Matthews
Leslie Hunt
Dripping Springs
Open Letter to Buda citizens
On June 16, 2020, the Buda City Council held its regular council meeting via teleconference. One of the items on the agenda was consideration of the adoption of a resolution in support of equality and justice. This resolution was proposed in the light of ongoing world-wide protests over the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
During the formal discussion period, Council Member Ray Bryant, the first and only African-American member of Buda’s City Council, spoke powerfully about his own lived experience as an African-American, and proudly in support of the resolution. The final speaker during the discussion period was Buda Mayor George Haehn. Speaking in a public forum, as the elected leader of the City of Buda, Mayor Haehn took this opportunity to object to the wording of the equality and justice resolution. He asserted that African-American victims of police violence should not be publicly named unless we also name police officers who have been killed in the line of duty, and questioned the very existence of systemic racism: “When we include the words ‘systemic and institutional racism, I cannot accept that. I have not seen it.”
This is the very definition of white privilege; if it hasn’t happened to me, it cannot exist. Mayor Haehn went on to say: “The idea that the entire system is rigged, and it’s intrinsic racism, I cannot accept those words.” The City Council went on to vote 6-1 in favor of the resolution, Mayor Haehn voting against.
The passage of this resolution is a symbolic first step, important but inconsequential in and of itself. Without the hard work of self-examination and reform, multiple steps taken in concert with all involved parties – government, police, communities of color – our minority communities will continue to bear the brunt of systemic racism and institutional injustice.
At this vital inflection point, to have a leader who rejects the most basic terms of the conversation is unacceptable, which is why I have asked that Mayor Haehn to either apologize to his community and commit to personal growth, or to step down as Mayor of Buda.
Terry Cummings, RN
Buda City Council
Single Member District C
