Restroom access no joke for sufferers by Laura Berman of The Detroit News Online

Last week, I took a swipe at legislators who couldn’t pass a budget but had time to “hash out legislation that will require stores to open their restrooms to the public.”

My comment was a stream-lined bathroom joke, a cleaned-up way to suggest that a law about bathrooms has to be trivial.

I apologize.

In her six-year fight to write this legislation and get it passed, Jill Sklar has heard plenty of dumb, insensitive jokes about the Restroom Access Act and, as she wrote me, “I am sick of it.

“For some reason, you think it’s laughable when a legislator takes the time to finally get it right and do something for those of us who would otherwise suffer in silence.”

Battling Crohn’s disease

Sklar, a Huntington Woods-based writer who battles Crohn’s disease, did not intend to become an advocate for people with serious gastrointestinal disorders. But she has lived through five surgeries that truncated her colon and small intestine, “adopted all lifestyle modifications possible, all to no avail in trying to control this monster inside of me.”

One of the consequences of the disease is that when she needs to use a restroom, she doesn’t have a lot of time for exploration. “It is incredibly embarrassing,” when there isn’t time to find one, she says.

Six years ago, Sklar, 38, who runs a six-minute mile and keeps up with her 11-year-old son, approached her state representative, Andy Meisner, D-Ferndale, and asked for help in getting a law passed that would give people suffering from colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and similar disorders access to employee restrooms in stores when public restrooms weren’t available.

Last week, amid a few remaining jokes and winks, in Meisner’s final term, the House passed the bill. “I think as soon as people listened to the testimony and understood that these conditions are god-awful” they supported it, Meisner said.

Humiliation cited

A formal House Commerce Committee hearing last month went a long way toward proving the case, he said: Sklar and others testified, often with tears in their eyes, about facing humiliation that could easily be prevented.

By then, he’d redrafted the bill to lessen the burden on shopkeepers, requiring ailing customers to carry a prescription from a physician, making it more difficult for them to sue in case of injury, and allowing store owners with fewer than three employees to opt out.

The Michigan Retailers Association enthusiastically backed the bill. Three states have passed similar laws in the last year, without opposition.

Meisner says retailers like the bill, because it will enable people like Jill Sklar to shop in Michigan stores rather than at home, on the Internet.

“It’s pro-business and pro-human,” he says.

Next week, the state Senate will have its chance to pass the Restroom Access Act, a move that could effectively change some lives for the better, improve Michigan retailers’ business and end the potty jokes in one merciful vote.

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What is wrong with humanity that anyone would purchase a piece of property and start a business called Bad Newz Kennels to rape, torture, and kill domesticated animals?  This man was already on his way to super stardom and with the NFL.  I applaud Nike, Reebok, and Donruss for halting and severing all ties with this disgusting human.  If he can’t treat animals with kindness, imagine how he treats humans?

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While it was not a change of life event like many of the commentators of the book have praised it to be, I did take a lot away from it and feel that this book may over time indeed assist me with my anal retentiveness and inability to recognize change in the wind.  Once change happens and I am given word of it I can usually adapt and respond to it quickly; but I always seem to be the last one to notice a situation going bad.

I do have to thank my current work situation however as I’ve had so much change for the worse that I have gotten better at seeing it coming.  This book however makes me wonder why when noticing things getting worse I didn’t react to them?  I spent a bit of time reflecting on this and realized which parts of my personality correspond to the characters in this book.  Once I established who I was and why I react the way I do I was able to think about changing and spent most of the night dreaming about that change.  While it was only dreams it gave me renewed excitement in relation to my job search.

The book is short, a quick read (I did it in one night) and I really suggest it to everybody.  The story itself may seem childish and you may grumble while reading some of it but in the end it wraps up very nicely and leaves you with a good deal to reflect on.

Who Moved My Cheese by Spenser Johnson, M.D.

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