From the beginning of the pandemic, the wearing of masks has been a controversial topic, made worse by the cacophony from the print and electronic media and further fueled by social media.

As a senior with respiratory issues, I readily took to wearing a mask when out and still do if a business or civil authority requests it. I was so startled by the disruption of our local school board meeting and the same at Scottsdale this past week, that I decided to write a letter.

The more I looked into the issue, the more writing anything that would make sense of it was out of the question, so I will settle for saying what I think. I believe it started with the government saying the wearing of masks was not critical and then changing course, requiring it once the system acquired enough masks to go around. I am firmly of the opinion that the pandemic was a public health matter and should have been treated as such, thus wearing of masks and restricting public gatherings was a must. A public health matter supersedes the rights of the individual. And yet, I have not heard anyone in government or the medical field cite the long-standing rules surrounding public health and the common good.

The amount of energy wasted away, haranguing over the wearing of masks would have been, and still would be, better spent by our elected officials finding a way to work through their differences and get down to the act of governing our country and solving real problems. And parents would be better able to manage the multitude of problems facing teens and their families today if they put their shoulder to that wheel instead of creating additional problems for school administrators.