When the Going Gets Tough

Just when we think government has reached the peak of absurdity a new twist pops up. How do we calm fears over bathroom access? The Alaska legislature has not gone as far as the North Carolina legislature but it is not beyond their dingbat quota.

Our local, state and federal governments can’t seem to face real issues and instead go back to chew on the same old bones, birth control, women’s medical issues, denying health insurance, no taxes for the rich, trashing the environment, killing laws that protect the poor and defunding education. Why do politicians spend so much time and energy on mean absurdity, gridlock and negativism? Why do they enact laws that are unenforceable? If it weren’t so laughable one would wonder how a law like North Carolina’s N.C. HB2 preventing local governments from protecting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity when they use the bathroom ever got passed. To use public bathrooms at hotels, restaurants people would have to use a bathroom that matched their birth certificate.

How is this law enforced? Who is going to check? Do we have to carry a pee ID? What are the qualifications for pee inspector? What are the penalties for going at the wrong place?      What is a restaurant is commandeered by the opposite sex to facilitate going under pressure? Gender-neutral restrooms are nothing new. Check some hospitals in Anchorage. They have been in use many years without a kerfuffle. Toilets should not be an on-going issue.    —N.L.M.—