Because Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther decided to keep her business open despite the stay-at-home order, the imperious Dallas County Judge Eric Moyé held her in contempt of court, sentenced her to seven days in jail, and imposed a $7,000 fine.
Looking like a bandit with his protective mask, and having his words muffled by the mouth covering, Moyé gave Luther a shockingly disrespectful tongue-lashing for her alleged selfishness and disrespect for proper authority, demanding that she apologize.
Who do Moyé and others like him think they are? How many times must we remind public servants that they work for us, not vice versa?
Granted, there are times of calamity when the average citizen cannot know all the details of the danger that looms and must defer to public servants, trusting that they are well-informed and well-intentioned.
Even at such times, however – in fact, especially at such times – the citizen needs to pay close attention to what public servants are doing and how they justify their actions.
Respect for authority is a good thing, provided that authority is respectable. It’s one thing to give public servants the benefit of the doubt and to be deferential when you believe that they’re exercising their authority lawfully and in the public interest. Once you begin to feel like you’re being bamboozled, however, respect and deference go out the window.
When authorities go too far, it’s time to challenge their authority. It’s time for defiance.
Luther was defiant. Heroically so. Even when faced with a week in jail and an onerous fine, she refused to back down.