You may or may not have heard about the restroom incident in Rapid City recently which has spawned yet another incident where government is trying to stick it's nose under a tent--or in this case, into a restroom--where it doesn't belong.

According to a recent article in the Rapid City Journal,  Bob Knecht told the council about a problem he had in not obtaining access to the restroom of a local business: 

But some Rapid City businesses won't give their customers restroom access, even in cases of a urinary emergency, Knecht told the city Legal and Finance Committee.

"I'm one of 60 million Americans who are on water pills. And when you're on them and you gotta go, it's right now," Knecht said. "You better get in the bathroom in a minute or two or you wet your pants."

The 85-year-old Rapid City resident said he has been denied restroom access while doing business in certain shops and offices in the city, even though he told employees that he could not make it to another store. Knecht asked the committee to mandate in city ordinance that stores and offices make restrooms available to their customers.

Jim Steele accompanied Knecht to support his complaint. Steele said he and his wife faced a similar problem at a gas station and convenience store in town, where they were told they could use bathroom facilities next door, he said.

The latest article doesn't appear to be available online at this point, but it says the city council rejected on Monday a proposal to mandate restroom access in businesses. The article states Councilman Bill Okrepkie says the proposed ordinance "is a 'dumb as dirt' government intrusion into private business".

“I mean, come on, let’s think about it. What we were being asked to do was tell businesses they had to open their stores up to anybody who wanted to use a restroom,” Okrepkie said.

Such a government mandate would be an unfair imposition on private business that could require expensive improvements in restroom facilities and open businesses up to liability problems, Okrepkie said.

Many businesses in the downtown area are located in buildings that are up to 100 years old or more.  They were built in an era when few if any businesses provided public restrooms, and any restrooms they have are small and many times located in storage areas which could be pilfered by customers coming and going.

These days too many people's knee-jerk reaction is to call the handy government thug to strong-arm the source of their problem for them.

But people can and should handle many things themselves.  People are not completely powerless. They can "vote with their feet" and not bring their business back to such an establishment anymore. They can tell others how they were treated, and perhaps dissuade others from doing business there.  They can make further written appeals to the business for a change in policy.  People are not powerless; how self-demeaning that so many people believe they are.

Everyone feels acutely offended when they have a problem they believe is caused by someone else. But elected government officials are supposed to be objective arbiters of what is right.  It is their job not to sympathize with the aggrieved party, but to examine the entire issue and determine what--if any--action is required to make things right.

Too often elected officials develop an inordinate sympathy with "the little guy" and completely lose sight of the bigger picture.  This is especially likely to happen if the official is of the same personal predisposition to call the nearest government thug in case of discomfort.

From what I've read, it sounds as if this man made it clear to the store personnel that it was not a frivolous request. Based on that, even if the business had a general policy not to open their restroom (probably a small one, intended for limited employee use), they should have exercised a little discretion and allowed the man to use the restroom.

Their failure to do so, however, is not a justification for government to come in with its heavy hand and start issuing mandates on private individuals and businesses.

If a business fails to exercise compassion and common-sense judgment, then the "victim" can use their free speech to tell other people about the incident, and it's likely the business will suffer a loss of patronage...and hopefully learn from the mistake.

In fact, the latest Journal article quotes Knecht as having found this answer himself:

“If I can’t use a bathroom downtown when I have an urgent need, then I’m not going back there,” he said.

But we don't need government--whether it's at the federal, state or local level--meddling any more than they already do in the affairs of private individuals or businesses.

Was this a sad and avoidable incident?  Yes. Is the world perfect?  No.

People--especially those in positions of government authority--need to grow up and realize this is not a perfect world, and when government sticks it's nose where it doesn't belong, not only is it engaging in a vain and endless attempt to perfect a hopelessly broken world, it is usually making a direct assault on freedom at some level.

It's stunning that freedom has been abused for so long, and government has felt free rein to overstep reasonable boundaries for so long, that things have reached such ludicrous levels.

But that's what happens when the people stay disengaged and don't smack down bad government.  When we remain silent in the face of minor infringements of our freedom, when we acquiesce to bad government, when we tune out and assume government won't really do something bad,  things end up getting out of control.

But it's looking like the government-regulation-addicts have overplayed their hand, and the Tea Party movement seems to be an indication that people are awakening to the threat that out-of-control government poses to their freedoms--on many levels.

Whether it's something relatively small, such as this restroom incident, or whether it's something big, such as trillions of dollars wasted in a few months or patriotic Americans being labeled "extremists," the people must hold government accountable to its limits any time it attempts to move beyond them.