Texas Not Doing Enough

Texas is slowly opening the economy but is not enough. Even with extended operational hours at the Texas Workforce Commission, many Texans cannot get through or even correct issues in applying for unemployment. The federal government has already issued funding to the State of Texas, and Texas is moving too slow, when many are hurting and out of a job. Many employers are that are hiring are being very picky. It’s an employer’s supermarket. Speeches made by politicians, that we need to test and hire up to 4,000 contact tracers to reduce the cases of COVID-19.

I have been searching on Indeed.com and Texas Department of Health for those jobs to help reduce the COVID-19 spread of the infection. We are now doing into June, the start of the third month shutdown. Many have not been tested in the vulnerable populations like the homeless, or the low-income families. Still people are not getting their unemployment checks and as the economies start to open, many counties will start to June first of eviction notices, and the homeless population will increase even more, and be beyond the economic problems of the 1930s Great Depression.

Texas public officials is doing mostly talking and not taking action to help Texans, but people will remember that during election year. Many politicians should not be surprise when election year comes, that people will remember the hardship and vote them out of office. Other states like New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio governors are acting, by testing their citizens, and hiring COVID-19 contact tracer to reduce the infection spread and at the same time open their economies.

Governor of New York State and the Mayor of New York City are taking further steps to bring in temporary help and utilizing trained, educated, and experience emergency management personnel. Yet Texas likes to brag how well we can handle disasters of the past but is surely not handling this disaster very well. I myself is considering going to New York, if New York will hire me, I plan to leave Texas to help them out because they are serious.

We have the most trained, most educated, and experience emergency management personnel in this part of the country, yet we have to see an army of up to COVID-19 contact tracers to be hired by the State of Texas, while other states that are taking action and hiring to build their COVID-19 forces. Texas will be left like before, of what ever is left of people trained as COVID-19 contact tracer and experience emergency management people leaving the State of Texas to work in states that are doing more to deal with COVID-19.

Texas has deployed the Texas National Guard and has not utilized the Texas State Guard that has medical personnel, communications, and soldiers to help handle this COVID-19 problem. Texas State Guard has a wealth of training, and experience of 2300 personnel to help manage COVID-19. Texas State Guard has handle the majority of natural disasters, when the Texas National Guard was in the battle fields in the Middle East.

Why is federal funding just sitting there and not being fully used to test for COVID-19, improve the delivery of unemployment? Many are still not getting their unemployment check since Texas Shut down on March 20th. Beautiful speeches made by politicians do not pay bills or feed people who have lost their jobs. Only Texas officials can answer that question, the unwillingness to take deep action for the citizens of Texas.

As Texans we need to demand of our elected officials to start doing more to help Texans and stop talking less with less action. Many of these elected officials in the state have reserve powers to act beyond the level of the federal government, it all comes down to the state governments, I can only praise state governments like New York and others for really caring for their citizens welfare. We have the people with experience to handle emergency management and are not being used Texas can not be partially close for three or more months. Texas economy has to be fully open, but use precautions of using face mask and social distancing, we need read the history lessons of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918.