David Shapiro: We can’t let frustration keep bringing out the worst in us

The news is full of stories about intense public frustration in the face of COVID-19, high inflation and unprecedented political divisions.

The frustration is understandable; what’s not is the noxious way we’ve dealt with it.

There was a time our state and country could pull together in times of adversity, make individual sacrifice for the common good and find sensible solutions to the problems we confront.

Now, too many use frustration as an excuse to act out, abandon any sense of civic responsibility and behave like 4-year-olds.

Never before have we seen so many supposed adults virtually thrashing on the floor in tantrums, screaming, “I’m not gonna,” calling each other “doodoo heads” and bullying vulnerable peers without conscience or shame.

The public square has come to resemble a Wrestlemania event.

Last week in Hawaii, a 28-year-old man was convicted on charges of beating a 71-year-old security guard who asked him to wear a mask at a COVID-19 testing site — the type of senseless confrontation we’ve seen repeatedly on airplanes, in restaurants and at the supermarket.

Oahu saw another of the brazen robberies in which thieves drove their truck through a storefront and loaded up.

Overall, homicides, robberies, assaults and rape cases on Oahu are at three-year highs, and police report being physically attacked more often by offenders they confront.

State Ombudsperson Robin Matsunaga, who for 24 years has taken complaints from citizens about the government and diligently tried to resolve them, says calls from complainants have become more “inappropriate, hostile and sometimes threatening.”

The Board of Education meeting that resulted in Keith Hayashi’s appointment as permanent superintendent had to be recessed three times as parents angry mostly about mask mandates shouted insults and pounded their fists. Previously, it was angry teachers reluctant to open schools for fear of being exposed to COVID-19.

Almost unnoticed amid the shouting is that DOE remarkably managed to keep the schools open and reasonably safe all year, something desperately needed by kids who suffered immense loss of learning and social development from last year’s lockdowns.

Attempts to make progress on homelessness, affordable housing and clean energy are inevitably greeted by high-drama NIMBY protests.

Nationally, our response to COVID-19 is disgraceful. Despite our wealth, we’ve had double the infections of any other country and by far the most deaths at more than 1 million and counting; our public health institutions are paralyzed by a belligerent minority that claims the right to freely breathe their germs upon others without precaution.

Some in high public office cheer, and even incite, the extreme acting out because it’s politically profitable.

Frustration is no excuse for the toxic mass selfishness that has overtaken our society, and the growing clamor for all rights and no responsibilities has never been a functional model.

If we can’t correct course soon and find a way to mediate our differences and work together again in common purpose and good faith, we’ll become just another failed democracy.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.