A sign requiring masks is seen near diners eating at a restaurant on the River Walk, in San Antonio, Texas, on 3 March 2021. The sign shows a Dia de los Muertos skull wearing a mask, with the words, “No masks, no tacos”. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the statewide mask mandate and business capacity limits without consulting his medical experts. Photo: Eric Gay / AP
A sign requiring masks is seen near diners eating at a restaurant on the River Walk, in San Antonio, Texas, on 3 March 2021. The sign shows a Dia de los Muertos skull wearing a mask, with the words, “No masks, no tacos”. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the statewide mask mandate and business capacity limits without consulting his medical experts. Photo: Eric Gay / AP

By Karen Attiah
5 March 2021

DALLAS, Texas (The Washington Post) – As spring makes inroads down here in North Texas, the impending reopening of the state feels ominously like a death trap.

At a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R)proclaimed that he would issue an executive order to open Texas up “100 percent” starting next week — including, as he told a cheering crowd, ending a statewide mask mandate. “People and businesses don’t need the state telling them how to operate,” he said.

It was ironic that Abbott made his announcement on Texas Independence Day. For many of us Texans, what we desperately need is to be free from a GOP leadership that has put our safety last at every turn since the pandemic began. Abbott’s decision to lift occupancy limits on businesses and other restrictions is reckless and premature. If you are unvaccinated in Texas — as most of us still are — the message is clear: You’re on your own.

Then again, none of this is surprising. The Texas GOP’s necropolitics have been on full display during this pandemic year. Last March, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that grandparents in Texas should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the state’s economy. When Abbott reopened the state in May, the move quickly resulted in a spike of cases, and he was forced to backtrack.

Now Abbott has thrust Texans back into the reopen rodeo show, and so here we go again. This time Abbott impressed on his listeners that the end of the mask mandate “does not end personal responsibility.” What about the responsibility of government?

Aerial view of a power outage in Austin, Texas, on 25 February 2021, after the power grid failed during Winter Storm Uri. Austin residents with medical conditions struggled to survive amid widespread power outages and no water. Photo: Brontë Wittpenn and Ana Ramirez / Austin American-Statesman
Aerial view of a power outage in Austin, Texas, on 25 February 2021, after the power grid failed during Winter Storm Uri. Austin residents with medical conditions struggled to survive amid widespread power outages and no water. Photo: Brontë Wittpenn and Ana Ramirez / Austin American-Statesman

It’s hard not to roll one’s eyes at Abbott’s lecturing — he reportedly wasn’t even responsible enough to directly consult with expert members of his own coronavirus task force before deciding to reopen. Then, once criticism rolled in, he tried to scapegoat immigrants crossing the border as the reason for the spread of covid-19 in Texas. It’s all of a piece with Sen. Ted Cruz’s reprehensible decision to book a vacation to Cancún, Mexico, last month while Texans were literally freezing to death as the energy grid collapsed. The Texas GOP’s song and dance is familiar: Elected Texas officials fail to act to advance the well-being of their constituents, while ordinary Texans are reminded of our “personal responsibility.”

Just two weeks ago, the breakdown of Texas’s deregulated energy grid forced millions of Texans to go without power, heat and water for days during record-low temperatures; more than 30 people lost their lives due to these system failures. Many Texans, myself included, had little choice but to break social-distancing protocols and shelter with friends, family or even strangers. If Abbott and the rest of the state leadership think that this Hail Mary reopening will distract us from the misery that we went through with the power-grid collapse, they should think again. [more]

Living in Texas right now feels like an exercise in survival