My Hometown of San Angelo is in Trouble as Doctors Say Texas Leaders Failed To Stop COVID-19 From Spreading

More on necropolitics, politics that are about deaths and dying. Tragically, Texas is a leader in child deaths. Such horribly misplaced priorities by our state's governor. I my hometown of San Angelo, Texas, infections have surged to approximately 2,000 with an astounding 22,000 total infections county-wide. This means that the rural areas are significantly impacted. Forget going to San Angelo any time soon.

Sadly, a 63-year-old minister and family friend, Pastor Edward A. Lopez, who
officiated many years ago at my grandmother's funeral, is one of these fatalities. His family's words expressed in his obituary are particularly unnerving:

"Reverend Lopez believed in the Lord and in medicine. He was fully vaccinated but COVID-19 ravaged his lungs and kidneys due to others not exhibiting the same wisdom. The family wants to thank Shannon Hospital COVID-19 ICU staff for the excellent care given with a special appreciation to Dr. Wood and Emily (Emy) Emmons, RN. Due to COVID-19, the funeral services will be for immediate family members only. Please get fully vaccinated, wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands."

When have you seen an obituary like this? He didn't "lose" his life. It was taken away by Gov. Abbott's necropolitics.

Despite being a very small percentage of the population of all COVID deaths, it is nevertheless the case that even a fully-vaccinated person can die from this terrible virus. 

If the governor or his party aren't going to help prevent preventable deaths, then we must all assume our own individual responsibility. 

This is so saddening. Peace, blessings, and solace for Pastor Lopez' family, church members, and community to which he dedicated his life. 

May he rest in peace.

-Angela Valenzuela

Doctors Say Texas Leaders Failed To Stop COVID-19 From Spreading

Hospitals across the state are running low on pediatric intensive care unit beds. Texas’ Department of State Health Services says only 81 of them remain — and just a couple hundred more regular ICU beds are available in the state of 29 million people.

PAUL FLAHIVE, TPR

 | POSTED ONSEPTEMBER 3, 2021, 11:36 AM

File Photo: Gov. Greg Abbott leads a roundtable discussion on public safety priorities at the Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters in January 2021.

Texas schools have amassed more than 50,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in students in just a couple of weeks. More than a dozen school districts have closed temporarily as a result of the disease, and Texas is a leader in child deaths from COVID-19 with 59 as of Sept. 3.

But state leaders have spent weeks of the surge pushing through controversial bills around abortion, voting restrictions and bail reform while Gov. Abbott has been fighting local governments over their efforts to stem the spread of the disease.

Hospitals across the state are running low on pediatric intensive care unit beds. Texas' Department of State Health Services says only 81 of them remain — and just a couple hundred more regular ICU beds are available in the state of 29 million people.

"Governor Abbott has failed us. A republican state legislature has failed us,” said Dr. David Portugal a cardiologist in Sugarland, Texas. "These leaders should be held accountable and be asked to explain how they can justify taking actions that are killing their fellow Texans."

Portugal and other Texas members of the advocacy group the Committee to Protect Health Care called on the governor to rescind his executive order barring local governments from mandating masks in schools. They are just a few of the many healthcare workers and local governments frustrated by the state’s lack of action on preventing the spread of COVID.

State officials recently admitted the bans were unenforceable by them, leaving it to local district attorneys. But the continued litigation and threats to school districts has left confusion and patchwork of policies that many doctors see as exacerbating the COVID surge.

"Hospital staff and resources are stretched to the breaking point," said Dr. Elena Jimenez-Gutierrez, an internal medicine physician in San Antonio.

The surge has led to canceled surgeries, overwhelmed staff and preventable hospitalizations and deaths.

"Doctors and other health care workers see every day how too many Texans are needlessly getting sick, including many children when we know this disease can be prevented," she said

The governor's office has recruited more doctors and nurses from out of state to help. He authorized more monoclonal antibody therapy centers — though doctors say the wait to get the treatment is as long as 10 days.

Abbott promotes vaccination as the real prevention. He got vaccinated on TV. But he draws the line on mandates — vaccines or masks — which are very unpopular with conservative primary voters as he faces two far-right challengers early next year.

"We will continue to vaccinate more Texans and protect public health and we will do so without treading on Texans personal freedoms," said Abbott in an April tweet where he also announced he would ban private companies from asking for proof of vaccination.

He reissued the order last month.

"Among Texas children who are eligible, the seven-day moving average of doses administered has gone from just over 10,500 in July to now over 15,700. We continue to strongly encourage all eligible Texans to get vaccinated," said Renae Eze, the governor's press secretary.

She also pointed to recent legislation that made remote learning possible for immunocompromised kids. She said schools have learned and implemented safety precautions, too.

And yet the number of cases continues to rise. And those kids are also an unfortunate disease vector for their teachers. Two teachers in Connelly Independent School District died recently, causing the district to shut campuses.

San Antonio is still fighting to regain its emergency powers. Andy Segovia is the city attorney and he says the Texas disaster act — which the governor is using to suspend local power — is about the state helping to coordinate in the wake of a disaster.

It’s novel because usually the governor’s acting on an emergency not saying government has no role, said Segovia.

Five mortuary trailers were dispatched to San Antonio to assist hospitals across the state that had run out of room. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the forethought on deaths should have been used to stem the spread.

“The fact is, the state is planning that more people are going to die of COVID. So much so that they anticipate local hospitals across the state are not going to be able to handle the amount of death they are going to see,” said Nirenberg.

Eight counties across the state are using refrigerated trucks to store the bodies of the dead. Bell County which includes Temple, Texas, has requested a second FEMA trailer with an extra storage capacity of 50 bodies. Several smaller trailers have been donated by the state funeral directors association.

As more schools see spikes in COVID transmissions, more teachers and students will become infected and could die.

Doctors and many local leaders wish the state would do more to prevent that.

A Republican Hispanic Governor? The Last Thing We Need is a "Colonizer In Chief"

God forbid that Governor Abbott would "win the next generation" of Hispanics as he indicates here.  Frankly, I don't know how any self-respecting Mexican American or Latina/o, generally, can support this governor with his racist, anti-Mexican policies and party, especially SB4.  

In a speech he recently gave to Hispanic republicans, he said, to applause, that Democrats seek to divide the state, using race as a way to divide it.  

Por favor, gobernador.  Nothing could be more divisive and racist than SB4 which has nothing to do with law enforcement  (Link). Heck, being an undocumented individual isn't itself even a crime (Link).  It's more like a traffic violation.  If this were anything different from what simple logic and credible sources indicate, you would have received major law enforcement support for this bill during the last legislative session (read further hear in this piece by Greg Pulte on SB4 and the Immigration Industrial Complex). 

Another way to parse this out is to read the 2016 Republican Party Platform itself.  Of course, all of this will appeal to colonized "Hispanics"—or whatever you want to call them—those that accept the dominant group's portrayal of them.  

My friends, despite the governor's appeal for Texas' first Hispanic governor to be a republican, the last thing we need is a "Colonizer in Chief," whether republican or democrat.

How bad are things right now for Hispanics right now? 

Really bad.  If you do not know anything about this, check out my recent posts, especially this one titled, America’s Future Is Texas by Lawrence Wright.  I am deeply concerned about the largely indifferent, if not callous, leadership in our state.

So go ahead, governor.  Give it a try.  I hope our community, especially Hispanic republicans, have the cojones to stand up to you, your party, and your president and the hateful rhetoric and policies that seek not to empower Hispanics, but to weaken and divide us.

Before it gets lost on me, Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day, everybody, from Austin, Texas!

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

Columbus Day no longer: Austin Council votes to recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

Abbott chases bigger share of Hispanic vote in 2018

As he seeks another term in 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking to build on the inroads he made with Hispanic voters when he first ran for governor in 2014.

by Patrick Svitek Oct. 7, 2017 5 PM

SAN ANTONIO.  Greg Abbott may not have a serious opponent for re-election yet, but he is already running against one group in particular: those who say Texas’ Republican governor can’t make further inroads with the Hispanic community in the era of Texas' "sanctuary cities" ban and Donald Trump.
Abbott made that much clear here Saturday as he addressed his campaign’s inaugural Hispanic Leadership Conference, rallying the Republican crowd against Democrats looking to unseat him — and laying the groundwork for a longer-term push for Hispanic GOP support.
“What we know is whoever they drum up to run against me, we are going to run against and we’re going to defeat,” Abbott said. "But what I want you to know is that far more important than running this race and running to win this race, we are running to win the next generation.”
The conference, attended by 250 activists, was the first in a series geared toward a goal that’s becoming central to Abbott’s re-election bid: growing the 44 percent share of the Hispanic vote he received in 2014. Looking to 2018, his campaign wants to not only build on that number but do so substantially, with an eye on capturing a majority.

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

“We plan to wage, if necessary, hand-to-hand combat with our opponents to win the Hispanic vote,” Dave Carney, Abbott’s political chief, said in a recent interview.

Abbott, who made the Rio Grande Valley his first stop after launching his re-election campaign in July, is so far chasing the Hispanic vote without the presence of a serious Democratic opponent in 2018, though the party insists one will emerge. In the meantime, Democrats point to a variety of factors they believe will hinder Abbott’s outreach efforts, including his party’s incendiary president, Donald Trump, and the state’s new "sanctuary cities" law that Abbott championed.
Senate Bill 4 in particular, they say, presents a steep new obstacle for Abbott to overcome with the Hispanic community, which he wooed in 2014 by touting that his wife, Cecilia, would become the state’s first Hispanic first lady.
“It’s a completely different world now,” said Cristóbal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Project, a Democratic group that works to elect Latinos. “Here’s the thing: Yes, Greg Abbott’s wife is a Latina and I hear that she’s a good person, but Abbott is really a Category 5 disaster for Latinos and the people of the state of Texas.”
In an interview after his speech, Abbott pushed back on the Democratic focus on SB 4, which aims to punish local law enforcement officials who do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. It has raised concerns about racial profiling, but Abbott said he sees the law as more of an asset than a liability as he reaches out to Hispanic voters. The Hispanic community, he said, “wants safe communities just like everybody else.”
When it comes to Trump, Abbott expressed confidence that Texas Latinos see him as “completely independent.”

“They know and we’ll continue to educate them about my historic connection with the Hispanic community and about how my values and principles connect with the values and principles of the Hispanic community,” Abbott said. “So any and all money spent trying to connect me to Donald Trump is like setting that money on fire and incinerating it.”
Abbott supported Trump when he became the GOP’s presidential nominee last year but kept his distance at times. Since Trump has taken office, the two have aligned on a host of issues, including the push to outlaw so-called “sanctuary cities” — which Abbott spearheaded long before Trump won the White House.
“Donald Trump is pushing the policies that Greg Abbott has crafted in Texas,” said Manny Garcia, the deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. "The Greg Abbott playbook is what Donald Trump is trying to do.”
In addition to being deeply skeptical of Abbott's push for Latino support, Democrats like Garcia question whether Abbott really received 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2014. The oft-cited number is based on exit polling, which some pollsters have criticized as misrepresentative of Hispanic voters, particularly in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.
Abbott began his speech here Saturday by evoking the centerpiece of his Hispanic outreach since he launched his 2014 campaign: his wife, Cecilia Abbott, the first Hispanic first lady of Texas. Sprinkling in some Spanish — mi familia to refer to his wife's side of the family — he spoke of his connection to the Hispanic community through his marriage to her, as well as the values he believes the community shares with the GOP: faith, family and freedom.
It was a largely apolitical speech until Abbott pivoted to a discussion of the challenges Texas faces going forward — namely from “Democrats who seek to divide us as a state,” Abbott said.
“They’re trying to use race as a way to divide us. They are messing with the wrong state,” Abbott said to applause, going on to invoke the unity Texans have showed in the wake of a Category 4 storm. “Perhaps they did not get the message that Texas sent in our response to Hurricane Harvey.”
Toward the end of his speech, as he urged more Hispanic Republicans to run for office, Abbott pulled out a baton. Abbott, an avid runner before the paralyzing accident he suffered in 1984, said he plans to keep the baton, which he signed and left a message on, in his office. That is, he added, until he can hand it off to the next Hispanic Republican to win statewide office — maybe even the highest of all.

Most recently, Hispanic Republicans have won election to statewide positions including land commissioner (George P. Bush) and state Supreme Court justice (Eva Guzman). But the top office has remained elusive — for Hispanics of both parties.
“The first Hispanic governor must be a Republican,” Abbott said, pausing between words for emphasis.
Abbott is hoping to keep engaged Hispanic Republicans like Rudy Madrid, who unseated a Democrat in 2014 to become Kleberg County judge — making him the southernmost GOP county judge in Texas. In an interview on the sidelines of Saturday’s conference, Madrid recounted how he grew up a Democrat but drifted toward the GOP after a stint in the military. Then he found himself solidly in Abbott’s camp during the 2014 gubernatorial race, drawn to the governor’s fiscal conservatism, among other things.
As Abbott asks Hispanic supporters like Madrid for another term, the county judge says he has not seen any cause for regret during Abbott’s first two and a half years in office. He said he has been particularly impressed with Abbott's commitment to overhauling the state's child welfare system.
“After following him and after having the honor of being on his team, he’s won me over tenfold now,” Madrid said. “It’s only gotten better, and it’s going to get better.”

Read related Tribune coverage:

• Before sign-waving supporters, Gov. Greg Abbott formally launched his re-election campaign Friday in San Antonio, days before he brings the Texas Legislature back for a special session. [Full story]
• Gov. Greg Abbott has a nearly $41 million war chest heading into his re-election campaign — and a special session in which he's looking to keep political pressure on lawmakers to pass an ambitious 20-item agenda. [Full story]