Thread by @erichhartmann

1/ 👇 THIS right here is the perfect example of how our local bureaucracies completely failed our kids, and our communities last Spring.

It’s all right here in one image: panic, ‘safety-ism’, politics, tiny tyranny, elitism, and pig-headedness.

2/ This was done by feckless local bureaucrats, with the ‘best’ of intentions, of course.

The local 'leaders' around the US who did THIS to our kids are absolutely responsible for much of this long term catastrophic damage we’ve done to our kids, and our society.

3/ Never forget that. Never let them live it down. …or else, how will we learn from this? How else will we make sure it never happens again?

4/ These local ‘public servants’ may think they can escape culpability because they did it “out of an abundance of caution”… they think that insulates them from blame.

It does not.

In fact it may even be worse than if they had done it on purpose.

5/ The reflexive default in the Spring should have been “normal first”. Period. On all levels of government.

In fact, we had PLANS for these things!

It’s not like we’ve never had an epidemic, or a pandemic to worry about before. In fact we’ve had several in just the past decade

6/ From the CDC on down we had PLANS. This was not a ‘novel’ occurrence. Far from it. There were protocols in place most places, based on ‘war games’, planning sessions, and a whole lot of tax payer money.

7/ But those (expensive, expert) protocols were just ignored. Thrown out. And re-invented by tiny tyrants who fancy themselves our saviors. On all levels of government.

8/ So, instead of following their own damn playbooks, these little bureaucrats felt the need to roll up their sleeves… throw out everything we’ve agreed upon, and panic.

That, apparently, is their version of ‘leadership’.

And the narrative media backed them up, all the way.

9/ There was not only ZERO data to support doing idiotic and unhealthy things like closing playgrounds, there was data supporting the OPPOSITE as early as mid-Feb.

We knew very early that this was a stupid idea, but they did it anyway.

#Optics!

10/ These tiny tyrants were either too dumb, too scared, or too politicized to make the necessary adult decisions.

And this one wasn’t hard: KEEP PLAYGROUNDS OPEN!

The effect this has had on our kids, our communities, and even the spread of the virus is immense.

11/ These idiotic playground closures didn’t just harm our little kids, it hurt bigger kids, too.

So many cases were spread in the Spring among family members w/ older kids. High schoolers who were not allowed to go outside… and so they stayed inside with their family…

12/ …where 62% of infections occurred.

So smart! So brave! So leadership!

You fools.

13/ And we cannot cannot cannot let them blame it on Trump, or a lack of a “national plan!” either.

That’s just even more cowardice on their part.

14/ Our system doesn’t abide “National Plans” for things that are obviously (and rightly) hyper-local decisions.

America is a wonderful collection of extremely unique local areas, and expecting a one-size-fits-all solution is… naive. To be kind.

15/ This decision rests firmly on the shoulders of the adults who made it.

These sad, scared, political little local bureaucrats closed our schools, our parks, our playgrounds and our ball fields… all because they valued the perception of safety over the reality of it.

16/ Instead of leading the way… the very people we trusted to be strong, thoughtful and steady… folded.

And now they’re trying to escape culpability.

Nope! Not gonna happen.

17/ Never forget what these people did. Never forget their names, and their faces. Do not let them escape responsibility.

And never, ever let this happen again.

/n