Posted on 03/10/2021 3:06:35 PM PST by volunbeer
Everything looks the same on either side of the Texas-New Mexico border in the great oil patch of the Permian Basin. There are the pump jacks scattered across the plains, nodding up and down with metronomic regularity. There are the brown highway signs alerting travelers to historical markers tucked away in the nearby scrub. There are the frequent memorials of another sort, to the victims of vehicle accidents. And there are the astonishingly deluxe high school football stadiums. This is, after all, the region that produced “Friday Night Lights.”
The city of Hobbs, population just under 40,000, sits on the New Mexico side, as tight to the border as a wide receiver’s toes on a sideline catch. From the city’s eastern edge to the Texas line is barely more than two miles. From Hobbs to the Texas towns of Seminole and Denver City is a half-hour drive — next door, by the standards of the vast Southwestern plains.
In the pandemic year of 2020, though, the two sides of the state line might as well have been in different hemispheres.
(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...
The states had taken very different approaches with regard to their young people, but ended up in almost identical places as far as their coronavirus tolls.
Near the beginning of the article, the author blames lack of direction from the federal government ( meaning President Trump) for Corona Virus problems. No, it was the evil governor’s like the one in New Mexico who caused problems like those presented in this article. Who did she “keep safe”?
Banked?
What do you mean? He sold masks?
My 16 year old son banked over 15k telling people to put on a mask. So there’s that.
It’s a very hard article to read, and everyone should read it. One of the best I’ve read on the topic and I’ve read many.
I’ve been involved in several private Facebook groups and activism in CA to try to get schools reopened (private and public are both affected), and to get sports back. Let Them Play, Reopen CA Schools, etc. I have two teens (both athletes) who used to live very different, busy, active happy lives before forced into their lonely dark bedrooms for “remote learning” by the state.
What I’ve learned after participating in 7 reopen schools rallies in front of district offices, and 3 LetThemPlay rallies, and 4 recall signature gathering events, is only these three things work:
1) Thousands of football parents calling, emailing, in rage in a single day to Santa Clara county to get them to reverse a particularly bad decision (harsher than the state’s). Football parents are enraged; I wouldn’t want to meet them in a dark alley.
2) Begin the action of recalling school board—to contact the county boards of elections and start collecting signatures. I do this every Sun afternoon and we are close to recalling one of our members, and will likely recall two more. I advise many parents in many CA districts to do this, and many are starting this. It lights a fire under the boards. They blame the unions but THEY make the final decisions to stay closed (if the state allows reopening which they have at certain points in time during the past year—the school districts and parents need to jump on that!).
3) Withdraw from districts and enroll in private schools or do homeschooling. This doesn’t hurt the districts at all (Newsom froze spending at 2019 levels and anyway the Dems just poured billions at the public schools today, for years to come) but it removes the child from the pain of remote learning. And best of all, the curriculum and teaching is universally better with either private or homeschooling.
It’s long past time for school choice and vouchers.
I’m right in the same boat as you. It pains me deeply to see so many brainless and mentally devoid lackeys mulling about.
Fear often changes people in ways that are difficult to predict and there was definite fear. In hindsight, we were being bombed by it non-stop via the media and often by those around us.
At some point, even when many understood who was at risk and who was not, nothing changed. Every glimmer of hope was crushed because “hope” was not allowed. The narrative of the “pandemic” had a higher goal. To get rid of Donald J. Trump.
It worked.
After the first day he came home and said, “I am not the police, it is not my job to make anybody do anything.” He told each person coming in what the Governor recommendations were. What the customers did with the information was up to them. It kept the business open and made him see how stupid the government is. He got paid to see how fake the world is. He learned things school will never dare say out loud. I view it as a turning point. If more kids had that experience, the teachers union would have a riot on their hands.
It was a powerful piece due to the stark contrast. I cannot help but wonder how many times this story could be told. Kids are resilient in many ways but that resilience (and growth) comes from activities and engagement. I think one of the worst things that can happen to a kid is to be isolated.
The undeniable fact that enrages me the most is that much of this “lockdown” was done for politics.
We have always homeschooled our kids, but even the lack of extracurricular activities over several months impacted them. How could it not? I am sure it was much worse on kids who were used to attending school!
At the beginning of the lockdowns, I never imagined so many Americans would comply with such baseless and destructive orders. And for so long. While my mental health remains strong, due to faith in God, I mourn what has become of our country. And that’s not even including what happened to the election. This nation has become almost unrecognizable to me.
Turns out TX and FL teens had a MUCH better year than CA teens—just by luck of the draw, where their families happen to live.
Yeah and teens don’t really want to be at home so much either. They like being out and about, with action and lots of activity and other teens. The times last year when CA banned even outdoor dining was the worst. That meant there was just nowhere to go and nothing to do, main street closed to hanging out, especially if other families were “isolating.”
The families of teens who were willing to get together in garages and outdoor firepits and—gasp!—even indoors found each other.
I think movie theaters will be opening at 25% in a couple of weeks in my area, I hope. Not for me, but for the teens.
Absolutely outstanding and rage-inducing report, particularly when so much that has been written here was entirely predictable by so many from the outset.
Props to the openly and unapologetically left-wing Propublica for this sober and responsible piece of journalism.
This was entirely what I predicted would be the case from Day One. I'm not surprised in the least that this turned out to be true.
There was absolutely no reason why people on FR who had just spent four years rightly deriding the mainstream media as “fake news” to suddenly start accepting the bullsh!t flooding the airwaves without hesitation.
Like I said ... that’s when I knew this country was doomed. Even a bunch of people right here on FR who spend hours online promoting themselves as principled conservatives turned out to be nothing more than pathetic, gullible fools.
An ‘effing GUN CLUB.
I told him they should never open again — because it’s not a real gun club. It’s a Girl Scout troop filled with middle-aged trannies.
Thank you for clarifying, as your original post made it seem like he was a paid mask nazi, and you were proud of it. On the contrary, I see you’re doing a fine job of raising a conservative young man. Kudos!
I can’t imagine. My teens did ok during the first month. Then they started hanging out with other teens in the neighborhood. Two of my youngest children played ball all summer. When school was close to resuming, my band child had a modified band camp. It was different, but the teens found a way to have fun with it. And they kept trying to perform their full show to no avail. It was very patriotic, and a storm stopped the show time and time again. I should’ve known what was coming for our country. Anywho, our teens have observed the insanity of the communists.
Anybody who couldn’t see through the BS at the outset is not a mentally functioning person. It was plain as day, it still is, and it’s a disgrace how few people actually embrace freedom beyond mere lip service.
You hit the nail on the head. One should not be living and fear because that implies that we don’t trust God.
What’s worse than seeing all the sheep out there bleeting was seeing Christians out there bleeting with them. That was a major disappointment. Instead, they could of used it as a good tool to share testimonies and share the gospel, but most I saw were too busy tripping over each other in their haste to comply with the complete mentally insane ramblings being put forth by our respective governments.
I did not read every word of that article as it was very long and depressing. Did the reporter just happen to follow the story of the one young man who ended up committing suicide or did the young men commit suicide and then the reporter went back to learn how he had been doing during the pandemic? That was a personal tragedy for his family and friends but we have suffered and are still suffering a national tragedy/outrage.
Only idiots say it isn’t real. Anyone who does is not a serious person. And it does bear risks, more for some people than others.
And anyone who disputes that is not a serious person.
But if there is a hoax, it is the manipulation and handling of it.
It stinks of the Left. Absolutely reeks of it.
The Left is allied with a country that thought nothing of murdering tens or hundreds of millions of their own citizens to achieve political goals.
We know what the Communist and Leftist ideologies are capable of doing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.