I'm feeling frustrated this morning, thinking about the implications of Governor Walz's new restrictions. Bars, yes. Shut them down (but my god, can we at least compensate the owners and workers?). Same with restaurants and gyms. It's been crazy that any of it's been open at all.

But shutting down outdoor sports for the kids? When they are outside in masks? It's hard to square the utility of doing so. And honestly, the kids have had to give up SO MUCH. Can't they have this one thing?

And if there was hard data that my kid's nordic skiing team - which meets outdoors, in masks, stays separate, and just has fun getting strong in the park as they wait for snow - is somehow a Covid spreading risk, then sure. I'll agree. But I just don't think that data exists.

IT FEELS TO ME that we are making the kids bear the burden for the refusal to make hard choices early in this pandemic, and throughout this pandemic. We have known this thing is airborne. We have known this thing likes loud talkers in small spaces. And yet.

And let me be clear, I'm not really blaming Governor Walz. He was dealt a bad hand. The organizing and planning he has done on behalf of the hospitals has been extraordinary. But he didn't have the guts, in August, to say, "We are shutting the bars to prioritize our kids."