Mt. Hood Community College’s bathrooms are getting a little drab. Tiles are stained, walls are off-hue and yellowed. Stalls, at least in the men’s bathrooms, have haphazardly dangling doors with dings and – not surprisingly – grafitti.

Most of the marks labored in boredom and immaturity are unoffensive. Some, however, are not indicative of the college atmosphere we should all be trying to maintain.

We can’t point fingers because we don’t know who does it.

We can’t stop it because it’s illegal to put cameras in stalls.

But we can say, at the very least, that it is stupid.

Imagine, sitting there on a toilet, with only a couple of intentions in mind. You reach for the toilet paper dispenser, ready to rip and wad, when you notice, in childish scribble, “Use hand when empty.” Funny, you might think. But not too far from this innocent humor, on the concrete wall opposite the dispenser, you notice a swastika. It’s green, poorly drawn, and yet a nervous feeling you can’t identify rumbles from within your body.

Nazis, in Gresham.

Now, in the same stall, your eyes are drawn to other writings.

Yes, we’re sure you have testicles. Uh–huh, you probably would have a penis, right, right. And yes, you even have bodily functions.

Regardless, there needs to be a certain level of maturity exercised, even when you’re just going to the bathroom. Don’t be too surprised, you know who you are and you know you probably shouldn’t be writing some of the stuff you grace your fellow releasers with.
It’s understandable, though.

Why try to keep something looking nice if it looks so cruddy in the first place? Right?

Wrong.

There’s more to consider than not considering anything at all.

Think of the money the school has to spend to clean your art off the walls. They have to pay for labor, paint and,well, maybe just labor and paint.

Have you stopped to consider that some people just don’t want to see your touts of ignorance – in the case of scribbles declaring superiority over Negroes – or declarations of neediness – in the case of providing phone numbers for whatever fulfillment you hope to achieve, even pleadings for intimacy outright.

Remember, the first step to overcoming idiocy is to stop acting completely “retarded.”
People don’t want to see pictures of your penis or breasts you’ve never seen. They, usually, don’t prefer to be bombarded with four-letter words at weird angles on walls in stalls.

Besides, the smell of fresh paint is a little overwhelming.