Ms. Luther was imprisoned for resuming business in contravention of state orders. However, she was released due to the overwhelming support of public opinion and was asked to run for the State Senate. What is her fighting belief?

Reopening Her Salon Despite State Mandate

――What drove you to reopen your salon business even after the state mandate and orders from the local authorities?

While we weren’t getting any government help, we reached out to the state unemployment agencies and they were dysfunctional, and all of the SBA loans weren’t reaching back out to us after we filled them out. And all of our income had stopped. We had no other choice but to open back up.

――And this was back in April?

It was in April. That’s correct.

Finding Strength in the Midst of Overwhelming Odds

――So, going along those lines, you went to court, but you still continued to fight for what you believed was right. Where does your strength coming from?

Well, strangely enough, when I first opened, I was just thinking of my family and my stylists. But as more people saw us opening, we had a huge backing from not just people in our community, but the state, the nation and even people reaching out from across the world, realizing that there was huge government overreach, and they were for standing up against that. And a lot more people started to stand with me, thank me, writing me letters sending me social media posts and things like that. And so basically, that gave me a lot of courage and strength. And of course, my father was in the United States military for 26 years. I wasn’t just going let the government roll all over it.

Positive Feedback and Support

――Were there any memorable comments that you received?

I’ve received board medals from veterans. Basically, a gentleman wrote me a handwritten letter saying that if he was back in the jungles of Vietnam and the war that he would want me by his side.

So, I mean, there was never a time where I thought, you know, I’m just going to back down.

When you get people saying those things to you, there’s no way in your mind, it never crosses your mind, that you’re going to back down from this.

From Salon to Senate

――Congratulations. I saw in the headlines that you’re running for Senate.

I am. Thank you.

――Could you tell me what led to that decision?

You know, it’s basically all the same things. Standing up, I mean, we weren’t super political before this. Obviously, we voted in all the presidential elections. We thought we were doing our due diligence with that, but not realizing how important the primary elections were until all of these things happened. Number one, and number two, I am not one of those people that’s going to sit idly by and complain about things, or mock people on the computer and not do anything about it. And of course, thousands of people reaching out saying, please run for something, we need someone like you in our government; you’re exactly what we need. And crazy enough, a senate seat opened up out of the 31 seats in Texas, the one that opens up for a special election is exactly where I live. It’s just crazy. It’s definitely a God thing. And the doors are just opening right in front of me without me even having to think.

The Liberal Movement/Losing God

――That is amazing. From our perspective, your way of life seems to be aligned with the U.S. spirit and what we are about, but I feel like liberals are gaining more power and there are many Americans who also disagree with your views. So how do you view this liberal movement?

Um, you know, I appreciate everyone. I don’t want to put anyone down or think that what I believe is better than anyone else.

I always want to try to see why people think the way that they do. I do believe that when we took God out of school, I think that’s where we first started losing our values. And that’s when guns started coming to school and violence started coming in. As soon as we left God and took that out is when all of these liberal movements started coming in. I think that we’re lost right now. And that’s where the struggle and the fight is. And I think that even when people get in trouble with drugs and alcohol, I think they turn to God and find their happiness again. I think that might be the way back.

Faith in God and Serving God

――So it sounds like your strength comes from the people who support you, but also your faith in God.

Absolutely.

――May I ask what your ultimate goal is?

My ultimate goal is to first of all, I guess serve God and do whatever he wants from me. We don’t know what the end is right now. We’re just trying to follow what he wants, and just do the best that we can, and do as much good as we can with the platform that we have.

Courage to Stand

――I respect that. Also, I want to confirm the timeline. I know you reopened your business in April.

Yes, it was April 24, we opened the business. I’m pretty sure it’s like April. It was whatever that Friday was, the 23rd or 24th, whichever one was a Friday.

――And you also started an organization called Courage to Stand. When was this?

Pretty shortly thereafter; it was a couple weeks after I got out of jail. Got it. And yes, that’s a charity organization. We started to help people that were kind of in the same situation as us. We went to the south side of Dallas, and there was a man living in his car at the time. We kind of got him started with a furnished apartment and also paid for an entire barber school tuition for him so he could have a whole new life and not ever have worry about having a boss. And so that was $18,000. We’ve given away probably $45,000 to $50,000. So far, just helping people, you know, — for single moms like a $1,000 tip on a bartender’s tab for a waitress or something like that. We received a half a million dollars in GoFundMe money when I was in jail. So, we’re just trying to bless as many people as possible with the gifts that we received and do as much good as possible.

――I love that.

Thank you.