It is virtually impossible to find any situation equal to what public servants are experiencing in this era of petulance, but I might have a close example.
Gillespie County, Texas, no longer has an elections department because its officials have resigned over the harassment they have received in light of the 2020 presidential election. Teachers have quit their jobs because parents have grown intolerably angry over mask mandates and other requirements imposed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The closest example to this I have experienced in my lifetime occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Americans turned their anger over the Vietnam War to those of us who participated in it. Our military personnel were following lawful orders but when they returned home from that war, they were treated in many cases like war criminals.
We grew out of that anger … eventually.
My hope now is that we can outgrow what is occurring now.
As the Dallas Morning News noted in an editorial:
This needs to stop. We believe in an America where people are willing to listen to each other, where they are willing to see the humanity in another person, where we are willing to admit maybe there is another side to the story.
That’s called maturity. It’s something that’s in too short supply these days. Some growing up would do us good.