My wife and I just finished a 5000-mile trip across this country in our 1985 Volkswagen Adventurewagen. We saw a lot of farm country and small towns, since we avoided most interstates. We camped in a lot of nice little parks that most people fly over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We always commented about the toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a bit early for most parks to turn the water on. We had 2\u201d of snow in Mobridge, South Dakota. It was freezing in Rosebud, Montana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the pit toilets were open for use. We had a shovel but didn\u2019t have to resort to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pit toilet at Far West, where Custer left the steamboat for the Little Big Horn was inspirational. It was very clean and had a poster on the wall. \u201cLet gratitude wash over your experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Ohio, a sign above the toilet forbade trash disposal, as many do. \u201cIt is extremely difficult to remove.\u201d The half dozen plastic bottles below told me something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pit toilet ethics are worth consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pit toilets have a specific construction that is best enabled when the door is closed and the seat on the throne is closed. Most toilets have such a sign inside. It seems only respectful to follow such advice. Most people do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pit toilets are the alternative to flush when water or septic doesn\u2019t suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember when my favorite road stop on the Salmon River switched out their flush toilets for pit ones a few years back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flushing is what we are used to. We all love it. But this site was just above a treasured river. Septic drains downhill. Pit toilets get pumped. I came to appreciate this choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How we treat each other is reflected in these ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember reading about the Mormon Trail<\/a>. These westward travelers left firewood for the next party and had their latrines downstream from their camp. It was in their ethics, their values. They got less typhoid. I appreciate such values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might seem a frivolous writer\u2019s obscure segue to come around to the Idaho legislature about now, discussing pit toilets and septic systems. But permit me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We elect these folks to do the duty of taking care of issues for all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am here arguing that the Idaho Legislature has left the seat up on a mess they have made. The smell is evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Idaho Republican legislators have acknowledged that their abortion statutes are a mess. Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Vander Woude said,<\/a> \u201cOK, now we have to take a really close look at the definitions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vander Woude cancelled the public hearing<\/a> of the joint Senate and House Health and Welfare committees to hear from medical providers about how their mess was affecting health care for Idaho citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Idaho legislature left the seat up as they walked out of our pit toilet. What does that say to you? I find myself disgusted by such behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you walk into the pit toilet and the lid is left up, you might find yourself muttering curses against the last guy before you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in this case, the last guy has an excuse. He was told to leave the lid up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out our Idaho State Attorney General directed his fellow Idaho Republican colleagues to walk away from solving this stinky problem. He wants to make a name for himself as he argues his case<\/a> before the US Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has indeed become very stinky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should not be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If folks, our Idaho Attorney General and our elected legislators would have just lowered the lid on their mess, this pit toilet we share might be less unpleasant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they chose not to. They left the lid up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about the pit toilet of Idaho politics. And let gratitude help you vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My wife and I just finished a 5000-mile trip across this country in our 1985 Volkswagen Adventurewagen. We saw a lot of farm country and small towns, since we avoided most interstates. We camped in a lot of nice little … Continue reading