A few months ago, I stopped by an ordinary Atlanta gas station, one that I have visited fairly often.  However, this time I needed more than gas.  I needed a restroom.  One coffee too many was making me more-than-a-little uncomfortable, so I stuck the nozzle into my car and began the "full bladder shuffle" toward the toilet.  Unless you are totally insensitive, you can imagine my dismay when I discovered that the little building that used to house the restrooms had totally disappeared.  I gingerly strolled to the counter to ask if the restroom had been moved, but the nice young man behind the safety glass informed me that  the public toilets had been removed  "because it was just too expensive to replace the broken equipment every other day."
    This would not be a cause for alarm if a closed toilet  is an isolated incident; however, I believe others will agree with me when I report that it is not.
    Not content with being messy and inconsiderate, some members of the American public are now  becoming actively hostile toward public plumbing, and I think this reveals how deeply our society is hurting and how poor a job the moral and religious leaders of this country are doing.   Psychologists may or may not agree with me (and what do  they agree with?), but I believe toilet destruction is the clearest symptom that our civilization as we have known it is going down the tubes -- please forgive the obvious metaphor.
      Here in America, we take care of our roads fairly well.  I drive a great many of them, and I can honestly report, that except for a few places in the frequently-frozen North, our nation's roads are excellent.   However, our toilet facilities, except at interstate rest areas, have been left to the private sector, and that sector seems to be hurting.    Or perhaps I should say that the people who want to use those toilets are hurting.  
    When my little town considered a public toilet building a few years back, we faced the dismal possibility that the costs of the project could run to over $100, 000 per year.  Per year!   Destruction-proof toilets are expensive, and they require constant care.  We scratched the idea of readily accessible public toilets, and the public has had to respond by frequently not visiting the town.  Who wants to visit a place where your bladder is endangered?
    On a larger scale, who wants to live in a country where your basic human need to dispose of waste products cannot be met?   When America faces the toilet problem, all our other problems are going to pale by comparison.   Energy problems, the crisis in health care, liberal vs. conservative, school prayer ... you name it.  These problems cannot be discussed until we face the public toilet issue.  I say we demand of our schools that "Toilet Courtesy" become Item Number One on our educational curriculum.  It obviously isn't being taught in the homes, and the nation is suffering because of it.  And I do mean suffering !  
    I say it's time to bring back sanity and courtesy and thoughtfulness to American life, and that effort must begin in the restrooms of this country.
    Now that I have provided the rallying cry, you'll have to please excuse me.  I have to visit the Little Boys Room.  I promise to leave it tidy when I'm finished.