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.
I like it!!!!
I'm 5'10" and 115# - I'll meet you at Mickey D's!!!!!!!
Great idea!
Those things don't matter - they are not tobacco related so have no place in this discussion ..../anti-smoker speak
Thank you very much. I have a mother - I don't need another one in the form of some taxpayer funder nanny group. And the same goes for my 6 year old.
My DIL has asthma and we don't smoke around her as a curtesy to her and her health but she has never asked us not to smoke around her. My stepson is your typical anti smoker.
"I think the arguement is about second hand smoke."
I was replying to Shelion, who is arguing that SMOKING doesn't cause cancer.
Your use and my use of the term "recreational drug use" apparently are 2 different things.
People are smoking tobacco outside, in the open air that is also being shared by exhaust fumes from numerous sources, only because some people that didn't like the smell were able to get the highly financed junk scientists to convince the corruptible and gullible lawmakers to do it.
But heck, I'm a reasonable gal, so I'll go with your idea of "recreational drugs" and suggest that the use of tobacco in an establishment created for the use of alcohol or caffeine shouldn't be a problem, should it? It solves the problem of tobacco use outside, doesn't it?
But I'll take it even a step further, let all the business owners make the decision. WOW, that's such a novel idea, isn't it?
I like it!!!!!
The more I listen to the anti-smokers on this thread I keep hearing Toby in my head singing...
We talk about your work how your boss is a jerk
We talk about your church and your head when it hurts
We talk about the troubles you've been having with your brother
About your daddy and your mother and your crazy ex-lover
We talk about your friends and the places that you've been
We talk about your skin and the dimples on your chin
The polish on your toes and the run in your hose
And God knows we're gonna talk about your clothes
You know talking about you makes me smile
But every once in awhile
I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you, usually, but occassionally
I wanna talk about me
I wanna talk about me
lol
Haven't been to the smoker's lounge in a very looong time but I sure someone has mentioned our plight in Socialist NY. The low burning paper is enough to gag a maggot.
Heck, now I have to run over to Socialist VT just to get cigs that stay lit between drags.
Nanny state pols suck! .... and so do the 400lb. commie babes who cluck at my smoking as they pass by.
I would never smoke around someone that I know has asthma or any other problem related to smoke..............
I'm 44 years old and have only known 2 people in my life with asthma that are now adults.........both of them are smokers.
I grew up in NYC and never met anyone with asthma until I was in my late 20s (the 2 mentioned above) and living in Delaware. After that it seemed that I was forever meeting people that had children with asthma, and they were all non-smokers. They were also fanatics about cleanliness - I mean, eat off the floor clean types. Drip something on the counter and the antibacterial wipe came out type.
I truly believe, and there is much evidence to back it up, that the antiseptic lifestyle so many people are choosing is not healthy. I had my daughter much later in life than most people I knew - but I guarantee they would be appalled that my attitude about her going out and making a mud puddle and jumping in and getting covered in mud is - OK strip down and get in the tub. she's a child, she's supposed to play and children get dirty - big deal.
Sorry for my rant - but the same kind of people that would deny a child playing in a mud puddle are the same that will deny a business owner making his own decision about clientele.
The science is overwhelming that smoking greatly increases one's chances of getting cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. Those diseases often end horribly. Take a look at a model or a picture of a smoker's lung and a non-smoker's lung and there will be little doubt from the viewpoint of common sense why this is so.
Smokers have heard it all before, and don't need rude busybodys trying to "educate" them in social or work situations. Often as not these self-appointed health police are sedentary and/or overweight, two behaviors about as risky as smoking.
This is supposed to be a free country. Smoking should be legal and so should smoking in private establishments. Those who don't like it are free to start or patronize businesses more to their liking. Enlisting armed agents of government to enforce one's dining preferences is a serious assault on freedom. And citing phony second-hand smoking risks to justify one's call to arms against private smoking doesn't cut it. Living in a room with a smoker for decades might cause disease, but dining out for a couple of hours with one obviously will not. That's common sense, and I haven't seen research that contradicts it.
That's my two cents, typed with a twenty minute interruption while I helped my emphysemic ex-smoking mother struggle for breath, even while wearing an oxygen tube.
BTTT
You know, I am not an "anti-smoking" person. I am just a person with asthma triggered by even small amounts of smoke. I am as polite as I can be- but have been screamed at by smokers. What have I asked? "If I am going to sit here and score the swim meet, please don't stand where your smoke drifts to me." They claim that it can't hurt if it is outside. It does if the wind is my way. I guarantee you that I hold my breath every time I go through one of your doorways. But I don't say anything normally. What would it change? I don't care about it in bars; I don't go there anyway. It has made a big difference in restaurants. It was so embarassing to have to ask for my food to go and eat in the car- or to have my whole group have to leave because I couldn't breathe.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't give a flying flip about the right of a smoker to smoke where he/she wants - I care about the owners of the business to make the decision.
With that said - smokers are taxpayers just as everyone else walking down the street, but the smokers have paid more taxes, so walking down the street I can only ask that the non-smokers be polite. Particularly in states and/or towns where the government (at the request of the antis) have forced the smokers out to the street.
I had a different reply planned as I was reading your comments.......
Thank you.
Your mom and you are in my prayers.
Thank you Gabz. That's very kind of you.
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