mikve lady

Question

I have NEVER used a mikve (except for Dej in Miami Beach) where it was NOT 'our way or the highway". I have had large scabs painfully peeled off and left bleeding. I have had my cuticles and elbows bleached with Clorox, I have had nail polish remover applied to parts of my body that have NEVER had nail polish on them and various other mikve lady tortures. Perhaps a phone call from a Rav himself might get somewhere, but then only with the mikve lady who will be on that night, the other one will tell you "its not okay". Perhaps a letter from the Rav himself to the Rav Hamachshir, but only if followed up with a phone call to "verify that the shomerot have been notified that the ladies who pasken by this Rav are permitted to do thus". Perhaps if a letter is then sent to the mikveh itself after the matter is cleared with the Rav Hamachshir and it is requested that the letter be kept on file. And of course the woman who wishes to use the mikveh must then insist that the filed letter be referred to. It is impossible to fight "mikve politics" while clothed in only a towel, robe or sheet. The woman across from you is trying to take control of the most personal and one of the most important aspects of your very being. In essence, it is perfectly kosher to throw oneself into the basin, and I once did help a woman do exactly that while the mikveh lady screamed that we Sephardics were assaulting her (it's not funny), it was over nail polish on a Friday night. I also never went back to that particular mikveh because I couldn't do it without too much stress and just chose to drive 45 minutes each way instead. I hope that you will please help this woman continue to use the mikveh of her choice in a dignified and kosher way. We need our Rabbis to help us fight these battles. The community mikveh should be accessible to everyone. If it is not, then we must build mikvoth that will be.