Opus 2018-134: On the Street: Tactical Bathrooms

I read that Starbucks was closed yesterday to brainwash their employees.  Since I have always tried to avoid Starbucks, I must confess I did not notice.  I doubt if I will visit them often enough to feel the difference in diversity. 

However, I used the restroom at Panera yesterday and I didn’t need a key.  I simply walked in, went to the back of the store and pushed open the door marked “men”.  That was how I was identifying yesterday.  No one shouted at me or was rude.  No one asked if I was a customer or required me to purchase anything.  In fact, since they were out of the type of bread I had come for, I did not buy anything. 

To be honest, I rarely find a facility that has the ability to be locked, let alone one having the lock engaged.  I say that having visited bathrooms all across the country and even overseas.  I have a lot of experience.  When my son was young he took it on as his personal project to visit every bathroom within sensor range.  For years my wife has had issues that require up to three stops on the way to the airport.  I know my bathrooms.  They are rarely locked.

Restrooms that are locked are in areas where the service has been abused.  I can almost pick them out from the street.  Usually they have the cashiers behind grills or bulletproof glass.  They are in areas where you might expect to find a lot of homeless or the type of citizen who likes to carve their handle on the mirror.  They are in establishments who’s outside appearance make you decide you are not thirsty enough to stop and buy a drink.  The point is there is a reason why the bathroom is locked.

So I have serious questions about the event that sparked this whole white guilt event.  Is it possible that someone stepped out of line?  Sure.  Life happens.  People are not perfect.  Did it come down the way the media portrays it?  Is the Starbucks reaction rational?  Not so much.

Meanwhile since I don’t shop there and hope never to work there the only damage is the added sense of social justice smugness that has been reinforced.

I prefer Panara coffee anyway.

homo unius libri