Stephen Tsai: Isle residents should get benefits for our sacrifices

We’re nice people, so we hold the door open for a person at the bank. Then eight other people scoot past, and all of a sudden, we’re 10th in line — and three people ahead of us can’t remember their PINs.

That’s us, the good aloha-spreading people of Hawaii, as we watch others get the best spots at Lanikai Beach and the Biki bikes that are not coated like Mokolea Rock.

The thing is, we did everything the governor and the lieutenant governor told us to do during the pandemic. We sang “Happy Birthday” twice while washing our hands with the thoroughness of an OR nurse. We had drive-by funerals and graduations. We obeyed the you-touch-it, you-own-it policy at the supermarket’s produce section. We didn’t hug Auntie. We walked in our houses like repelling magnets, keeping our third-and-2 distance from each other.

And when we were finally told we could go out and mingle … we were at the back of the line.

The hiking trails were packed. Genki’s had a 30-minute wait. It was 45 minutes at the Cheesecake Factory. We gave up on the Olive Garden. Even if we could afford a Louis Vuitton bag, we still would have to wait a long time to enter the ratio-appropriate store. Staycations meant staying at home. It was like being on Santa’s “nice” list all year, and on Christmas morning, you wake up to find your visiting cousin playing with all your new presents.

It’s not the tourists’ fault. They are largely respectful, and they took all the tests and shots that were required to roam paradise.

It’s to our leaders’ credit for ensuring that we did everything to keep our kupuna safe and ERs vacant.

But it seems as if there should have been a good-behavior reward. Maybe a residents-only month to potluck at Magic Island before inviting the visitors? Maybe a Disneyland-inspired Fastpass that puts residents at the front of the start line of the Makapu‘u Point Lighthouse Trail? Lived here 10 years? Move to the front. Been here 20 years? Go ahead of the 10-year couple.

Playing by the rules does not always help in getting into the game. The Big West, of which the University of Hawaii is a member, postponed and then canceled the women’s volleyball season. But while the Rainbow Wahine were idle, the Big West competed in basketball, and nearly every other Division I conference had some form of a women’s volleyball season.

With no Hawaii high school games this past academic year, Hawaii football prospects lost opportunities to showcase their skills to recruiters. Meanwhile, there were games played in Las Vegas, Utah, Texas …

Hawaii high school baseball players have gone two seasons without playing a full schedule and a state tournament. Think that’s not affecting the MLB Draft?

There was only one UH event — the baseball ’Bows’ final home series — that allowed spectators, and that was on a limited close-friends-and-family basis. There have been UH teams that have not gathered fully in their locker rooms in a year.

We did our part. The hope is there will be a benefit to the sacrifice.