07/27/2020
This is Heidi Harris.
As a former casino worker, (cocktail waitress and singer), I truly UNDERSTAND what people are going through right now who are unemployed or underemployed. I am heartsick at what's happening to my fellow Las Vegans.
I know what it's like to sit at the kitchen table and try to decide what you HAVE to pay, because you can't pay everything at the moment. I know what it's like to cash out jars of change to buy groceries. I've been through uncertain times, had to make changes and recalibrate, but God never left me. I never missed a meal.
I am disheartened and frankly disgusted at the attitudes of some people who keep telling others "Stay home!" "We need to close down again!" "Bars are spreading it!" "People might DIE!"
How dare you, when you have nothing to lose and won't miss a paycheck?
Here's some breaking news, you elitists who've never worked a gig or bussed a table: Some people have to LEAVE their houses every day to KEEP their houses. They can't sit home in their pajamas wagging their keyboard fingers at others.
Livelihoods matter as much as lives do. Some people are losing everything they've ever worked for. Careers, businesses, houses...
Here's more breaking news: Unemployment, even if you can get it, doesn't replace a lifetime of work spent building a business or career.
If you are that scared, be good girls and boys, do what the government says and STAY THE HELL HOME, but remember that the REAL people are the ones who are bringing groceries to your house or stocking the stores, picking up your trash, and fixing your utility lines during this crap.
THEY are still out there, and they have more guts than some of you do. What would we do if EVERYONE had your attitude? YOU "nonessential" person, we could probably all live without.
What about cops and firefighters who risk their LIVES daily? And some people are clutching their pearls about what is, for the vast majority of people, a bad flu??
No, we are not "in this together". The idea that someone who wants to go back to work to feed their families "doesn't care about others" is bu****it. YOU don't care about the suffering of others because it's not real to you, (yet). YOU will (maybe) still have your car, home and retirement check when this is all over.
When it gets real for you, hits home, or when you lose your job, you'll think differently.