Posted on 11/19/2004 5:35:36 AM PST by SheLion
Today is the day we set aside each year to badger, harass and pester that marginalized subculture of Americans, the Doorway People.
You know the Doorway People. They stand in doorways at work or at the mall smoking cigarettes because lighting up in mixed company has become as distasteful as nose-picking.
Yes, today marks the 27th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, where modern incarnates of pinch-mouthed prohibitionists attempt to further ghettoize smokers.
Now, it's not that I think smoking is good. I have friends who smoke. I wish they didn't. On average, they will trade 10 years of their lives to enjoy their habit. But we're all grownups. Smoking is their demon and I have enough of my own demons to wrestle with.
But, unlike anti-smoking zealots, I sympathize with smokers.
That's because I was a smoker. When I quit for good in 1996, I was burning through 2 1/2 packs a day. I ditched the habit because each time I coughed, my lungs rattled as if someone had backed into metal trash cans.
Still, I loved every puff. I still miss it. In fact, I still have nicotine cravings.
So I'm sympathetic to smokers and believe they should be free to enjoy their addiction, which, last I checked, remains legal. Which is why I dislike the anti-smoking scolds. They are trying to criminalize smoking.
From New York City to Dallas, from Toledo, Ohio, to Eugene, Ore., anti-smoking zealots have racked up successful campaigns to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, the last bastion of peace and acceptance for smokers.
Eventually, the anti-smoking "movement" will have won enough smoking bans in enough cities in enough states to introduce national no-smoking legislation, said Zoe Mitchell, co-founder of Ban the Ban, which recently defeated efforts to enact similar no-smoking legislation in Washington, D.C.
"Ultimately, their goal is to make it a national issue based on their success at the local level," she said.
Anti-smokers say they're acting in the best interest of public health.
They say all those smokers burden the healthcare system with their cigarette-related maladies. It costs all of us more in healthcare premiums, they say.
Nonsense. Smokers die sooner than most of us nonsmokers, never collecting a cent from Social Security, which they've paid for decades.
Also, smokers pay outrageous cigarette taxes on each pack of smokes, which pours billions of dollars annually into government coffers.
At best, the money argument is a wash.
When an anti-smoking nut steps into a place like the Puss N' Boots Tavern in Fairless Hills, all they see is the blue-gray cloud of smoke hovering over the patrons crowded around the bar.
When I walk into the Boot, I see it differently.
I see a local cop who's seen more than his fair share of tragedy.
Or an emergency room nurse who was up to her elbows in blood just a few hours before.
Or a construction guy who's sacrificed years of Saturdays to work overtime so he could save for his kid's college tuition.
Or a middle-aged father worried about his son, who's fighting the war.
These are the good people the anti-smoking zealots want to stigmatize as public health leeches.
And if they accomplish their goal, they won't go away.
They will persecute the overweight, stigmatize SUV drivers and haul into court those who don't recycle.
They've got the money and the time and the lawyers.
You're getting in a snit now. The things you describe for the most part are criminal acts. Smoking is not a criminal act.
Most non-smokers don't have a problem with smokers...........the same can not be said about the anti-smokers, which is an entirely different breed into and of itself.
I'm running into more and more non-smokers that are horribly embarrassed by the attitudes and behaviors of the antis. And where I live there are very few antis (thankfully)
Your Problem isn't "Smoking," --it's "Invasion of your "Space!!"
Doc
Excellent post! Don't they just drive you nuts!!!
People DO get emphysema who don't smoke. Our pastors mother has it. And no shes not been around second hand smoke.
Because they are greedy lazy bums with Edwards and Fieger lawyers who want easy money without working for it and have a good politically correct boogeyman.
But when I am walking into a non-smoking restaurant and there are 10 people outside the front door smoking and blowing smoke directly into my face as I walk in, I get a little pissed. Smokers want people to respect their right to smoke but they don't want to respect my right not to have to smell it. Does that make sense?
NO. They are outside because they were forced there to protect the precious air inside. If NON SMOKING restaurants were popular...it wouldn't take a LAW to Force them to exist. So I figure the only way to provide you with the smoke free environment is to stay home, or just JAIL the legal smokers. Perhaps shooting the smokers would make you happy.
You know something...my grandma also smoked like a bad turbo (always non filters and sometime self rolled in news paper, paper),drank almost a pint of whiskey/moonshine a day and died when she was 105.
Not of any illness, but just because she just ran out of steam. I do not recall my grandma being ill once. I think moderation is the magic word, because she never smoke more than 4-5 cigs a day.
I guess it takes all kinds. We are just the opposite. If a resturant says no smoking, we leave and go somewhere else.
Hey, you can pray for me if you want to. I can always use a few prayers.
I like it!!!!
Actually it's not. Perhaps you should read what available literature you can find detailing the neurochemical activity of the active ingredients in tobacco smoke. But I somehow doubt you would be interested. We like to believe what we like to believe, whatever evidence their is to the contracty.
If you were aware of what receptors nicotine and other tobacco ingredients bind to, and could understand some of the biochemical terminology, it would probably not be a pleasant thing to discover ... if you are a tobacco user that has convinced yourself for years that you are not addicted to a drug (in the case of tobacco, more than one individual drug).
My Dad smoked three packs a day for a long time. He got up one morning, found that he was sick and tired of smoking, crumbled the pack and never smoked again.
I hear you. I've seen with my own eyes heroin users wake up one morning and say "this is it, i'm done with H". I've seen marijuana users quit for good after decades of use. It's not uncommon for people to quit their addictions abruptly. I've seen chronic alcoholics give up booze in the course of a week. Some people have trouble, some people do quite well. But that doesn't mean that the substances they used were not addictive (except in the case of marijuana which cannot be proven to be physically addictive - though the psychological addiction can be quantified with some degree of certainty).
It is dangerous to say that beause I know "X, Y, and Z quit drugs, that drugs are not addictive".
People can stop addictive drugs. But the drugs themselves are still addictive.
People who cry the blues that they can't quit is because they really enjoy it. I know I do, and that is one reason I won't even try to quit again.
And I am not suggestion or recommending that you do so. Drug use in and of itself is neither "bad" or "good". It is neutral. As long as you aren't hurting anyone else with your habit, I will always fully support your right to use your drug of choice in the privacy of your own property, and will vote to allow you to do so.
I'm not sure that I support recreational drug use in public, however.
I apologize. I didn't mean to imply that you did. It was a generalization and not meant to imply that you personally used recreational drugs of any kind.
You are still going on the assumption that second hand smoke kills people. That has been debunked!!!
That just proves my point. Its the sight of the cigarette that drives them crazy, not the actual smoke.
Everything is me, me, me. You want to smoke, fine, do what you want. Just don't do it where it affects me. Is that too much to ask.
YES. You have the right to ask people not to smoke on your property! However I would suggest that you not walk into a private business that allows smoking (inside or outside). I maintain that the people outside are respecting you, by smoking outside. Stay away from places where people do things that affect you.
Sorry but your arguement is all about ME! Allowing Smoking in a business isn't a SMOKERS rights thing...its a arguement for the rights of business to make its own laws. Would you be in favor of a law forcing a business to allow smoking? Or Banning non-smoking establishments? Of course not. However I would. Government needs to stay out of this area.
Since we are only discussing smoking tobacco in private businesses here, what is the point of your comment?
What I don't like is that smokers STINK up an entire room and they think it's there RIGHT to do this. Screw everyone else, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WHAT I WANT.
If the owner of the room allows the stinking up of his entire room then your option is to stay or find a non stinky room.
Lets make a Deal Ya'll don't smoke and I won't... FART!
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