Lindsey Graham, the owner of Glamour Salon in Salem, Oregon, has been harassed by numerous government agencies for reopening her salon despite Gov. Kate Brown's (D) stay-at-home order.
During a Friday press conference, Graham said multiple government agencies, including child protective services, have investigated her for wanting to reopen her salon and make a living.
"And, if you can possibly believe this, on May 7th, Child Protective Services showed up at my home," she said, taking a deep breath while holding back tears. "They questioned my husband and I. They questioned my child, without me present. They searched our home. And I've never expected such a violent, aggressive, vindictive thing ever could have been done to me or my family because I'm trying to earn a living, because I'm trying to work."
According to the salon owner, CPS' case is still open, as far as she knows.
"They are still insisting that they want to talk to my three-year-old daughter," Graham said. "So I don't know if they're going to try to talk to my eight-week-old newborn. We'll see. But they did check his diaper."
She said the concerns the CPS listed "were completely random, unmerited, unwarranted and unprovable."
"So it was a completely false claim and if they don't pursue a false claim and there are actually children out there that are being abused by their families, then they're wasting their time investigating me because Kate Brown doesn't like me, that's pretty devastating," Graham said. "This is a false claim that wasted CPS' valuable time when there are children who are really in need."
Not only did CPS come after Graham's family but Oregon's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slapped her with a $14,000 fine. The state's licensing board also threatened to pull the licenses of every single stylist at the salon, which would prevent them from working at other salons throughout the state.
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The owner says there are 23 stylists in her salon, all independent contractors, not her employees. As of now, three stylists have decided to return to work. Although Graham can't give an exact number, she estimates each stylist is seeing three to four clients per day.
Graham said she plans to stay open as long as she can manage it.
"I'm bound to stay open as long as I can until the government basically tries to take my entire career, something I've worked 15 years for, out from underneath me," she said. "That's the most harmful thing they could have done and I think that's why they did it."
"I've worked my whole life to build the businesses that I've built and they want to take away my entire right to do that," Graham explained.
"I feel persecuted by Kate Brown herself because she's governing these agencies. She's allowing them to target me and, if not, requesting them to target me because every agency she has underneath her has come at me at this point," the owner said.
According to Graham, the governor has the ability to make the entire saga go away by allowing businesses to reopen and giving citizens the ability to take care of themselves.
"I believe that if she would let her people work and earn a living and let us do it safely and let us be adults, consenting adults that know how to take of ourselves and take care of each other. We're humans. We have compassion for each other. We're gonna look out for each other. We know how to do that," Graham said. "If she would just allow us to do that – I don't want anyone to get sick. I know you guys don't want anyone to get sick, but I also don't want to go bankrupt and lose everything I've worked for. So let's be active, mature, caring, sensitive to other people. Let's open our business and be conscious. Let's all be able to maintain our livelihood. If she would let us do that there would be no issue."
It's absolutely ridiculous that this woman is being persecuted. As she said, 20 minutes up the road people can go and get their haircuts but her stylists aren't allowed to work because the governor hasn't given the green light. Not only did the state threaten to shut down her business and pull her licenses, but they're also now looking into taking away her children.
This right here is the definition of government overreach and tyranny. This right here is absolute power corrupting absolutely.
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