To the Basement Bar, PR’s, lake partiers and Colleyville: Calm down, y’all. And help.
Folks, calm down.
We’re having a pandemic.
I know you want to throw a lake party, or go honky-tonking in the Stockyards, or get a tattoo saying “Colleyville Forever.”
But we’re in a crisis. Folks are sick. Or out of work.
Try to lay low. Don’t make it worse.
This means you, Basement Bar, PR’s Saloon and other Fort Worth Stockyards bars, and your Facebook post saying you’re opening May 1 to “stand up for freedoms. It is our right.”
We don’t have that freedom in a pandemic. The Supreme Court settled that in 1905.
Now, I know that all y’all out in the Stockyards bars are blue-ribbon champions at washing your hands.
I know you’re not worried about catching coronavirus yourselves.
But worry about taking care of everybody else around you.
Chill. We’ll all have a beer soon.
And this also means you, partiers at Eagle Mountain Lake.
There’s nothing better than going out on the lake.
But stay on your own boat.
From photos and videos from Lake Country Marina last week, the bands at the lake’s weekly rock concert were set up carefully, with musicians such as the Josh Dutton Band spread 6 feet apart.
They’re smart.
But then patrons piled off onto the slips and mingled on the dock.
Not smart.
(That makes it the same as a bar. Although I did see a couple of smart people wearing masks.)
Also, the folks who organized this show didn’t have both oars in the water.
They asked for donations through the mobile payment service Venmo.
But they said the money was for the North Texas Food Bank.
That’s for Dallas County and points east. (Tarrant Area Food Bank serves Tarrant County, western Denton and 13 nearby counties. You hear more about the North Texas Food Bank, but that’s not local.)
Look, I know folks want to blow off steam. Some are out of work or upset.
That brings me to y’all in Colleyville and Mayor Richard Newton.
I know y’all want to put the hired help back to work no matter how dangerous it is, and get the sales tax money rolling in.
But don’t be telling whoppers.
First, Newton said his city is “autonomous” from Tarrant County and doesn’t have to follow county orders.
Tell me what you think. Here’s state emergency law: “To the extent of a conflict between decisions of the county judge and the mayor, the decision of the county judge prevails.”
Clear enough?
Then, last week, Newton issued a proclamation reopening restaurant patios, gyms and hair or nail salons.
He said it was the same as Gov. Greg Abbott’s order.
Only it clearly wasn’t.
Abbott’s April 17 order GA-16 reads: “People shall avoid eating or drinking at bars, restaurants, and food courts, or visiting gyms, massage establishments, tattoo studios, piercing studios, or cosmetology salons.” (It went on to say that take-out food is allowed.)
Colleyville’s April 20 proclamation reads that massage establishments, salons and cosmetology services “are allowed on a one-on-one basis. ... [Gyms] may not be open to the public without an appointment. ... Restaurants with outside patio areas may allow customers to consume food in the outdoor patio.”
In what passive-aggressive, no-I’m-not-fake-news-you’re-fake-news Tea Party game-of-chicken can Newton claim his proclamation is the same?
Colleyville’s sanctuary-city silliness is putting professionals and restaurants at risk of losing their state licenses and livelihoods.
The mayor said something else very telling.
At the April 21 city council meeting, Newton was explaining his proclamation.
In an odd aside, he said the government shouldn’t make these decisions.
“In the United States of America, citizens are the only sovereign entity,” he said.
That’s a dangerous line. It’s straight from the sovereign-citizen movement.
The idea is that Americans are not answerable to government or taxes. Only to ourselves.
In other words, it’s pure ego.
Look, we don’t live in America as “sovereign citizens.” We live as a society.
Times are going to get tough. We’ve got to pull together for the common good.
We need all y’all at the Stockyards, the lake and Colleyville to pull, too.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
