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.
Well, life is full of risks. I don't rappel. I choose to smoke. I don't sky dive, I choose to smoke. I'm not obese, I choose to smoke. Life is full of choices, and not all of them are risk free. I just choose to smoke.
None of us are going to get out of this life alive. And when my number is up, it won't matter one bit if I ever smoked or not.
bttt
That's true, private businesses should be able to do what they want. If they want to risk the loss of business, they can keep acting however they want.
But, in states where it is illegal to smoke in public places, that means that I don't have to complain to the managers of the business. That's already been taken care of. I should be able to walk from point A to point B without walking through a cloud of poison. And that's where my smoke vs. spit argument came from. If a smoker feels the need to blow smoke on me in a PUBLIC, NON-SMOKING area, can I spit on them and call it even?
???
My family smokes. We find it no problem.
As for cost? I roll a beautiful carton for under $8.00 and no longer pay into the state coffers any longer. The savings has been fantastic. :)
Well, they pushed the smokers outside. Where else are we to go? Underground?
What with the big smoke eaters today, there is no reason for these bans. You go to Casino's in Las Vegas and most people are smoking, but you have to look to see it. You sure can't smell it anymore nor can you see the smoke.
Air purifiers are excellent.
The smokers who ruled the world turned almost every public building and accommodation into a fuzzy, blue-hazed cave that reeked like last week's ash tray. How well do I remember the stench and murk of every restaurant, government office, and motel room when smokers ruled the world. And the smokers who ruled the world assumed their right to fire one up was completely superior to any claim of the non-smoker.
Don't like the smell? There's always the great outdoors.
Allergic? That's rich.
Smoke gives you headaches? Take an aspirin.
Most smokers I remember also blithely assumed they had the absolute right to turn MY car, house, and workplace into their own private smoking den. Permission to smoke in someone else's car? What a bizarre concept.
When smokers ruled the world their footprints were all over the faces and backs of the non-smokers. I was there.
I personally believe it should be up to business owners to decide if an establishment is "smoking" or "non-smoking". The government shouldn't impose "non-smoking" laws on private establishments. Public buildings are a different story.
But I remember the day when the only choice was "smoking" and the cavalier attitude of the smokers who ruled the world.
So the attitude of today's non-smokers is no surprise to me.
Need a drag? There's always the great outdoors.
Getting "jumpy"? That's rich.
Get a headache when you don't smoke for a while? Take an aspirin.
Thus doth the great wheel of Karma turn.
Have you ever noticed that there is always a group of people out there wanting to tell the rest of us how to live our lives?
What ever happened to 'live and let live?'
Everyone needs to take responsibly for their own actions.
Better yet, have you ever been to a government and seen the employess gathered in front of the building smoking? Have you ever walked through one of these groups to get inside the building?
Yes, and do you know why those people are gathered in the doorway? Because the antismokers drove them form the building using junk science and scare tactics to invoke the rule of law.
I suspect if the smokers had a room, or even a covered patio a few yards away, they wouldn't be standing in front of the doorway.
If you are walking from your car and going into a restaurant that is non-smoking, you shouldn't have to walk through a gauntlet of smokers who are outside having their cigarettes.
I understand completely where you're coming from.
Do you understand that, at this point in time, most smokers don't CARE where you're coming from.
The anti forces have pushed the average smoker from restaurants, bars, workplaces, seperate smoking rooms, doorways (25 feet sound familiar?), and almost into the street. If they do deign to give the smoker a little patio somewhere you can almost guarantee that the patio looks like some type of enclosed pen and there is no cover to keep the elements off the smokers head.
Smokers have been taxed, retaxed, and taxed again all in the name of,"It's for the children!", or, "It's to MAKE you stop.", or, "It's because you don't pay your fair share of your health cost.", or just because someone doesn't like the SMELL!
Smokers have been demonized as murderers, hateful people, people that don't care about their families, unintelligent, low class, etc.
At one point in time there were considerate smokers and inconsiderate smokers. Now I don't think you are going to find too many smokers that will take into consideration your wants and desires unless you force them to by rule of law. They've been pushed as far as they are going to be pushed and until some type of mutual accomodation can be reached they just don't CARE.
Or the drug addicts break into your homes or businesses, rob you and maybe kill you, your family and friends, too, to get items to pawn to support their habit.
Or they turn into prostitutes to support their habits and spread STDS and TB around eventually to people you care about, if not yourself.
Really safer to have alcholics or drug addict that don't force their habits on you, like smokers do, isn't it?
Most people don't like reeking of smoke after a night out. My biggest beef: a girl (usually) who doesn't want to hold her cigarette near herself or her friends who holds her arm out so her cigarette ends up 2" away from me or my food. That is soo rude.
Well, hehe! As long as cigarettes are still legal, I shall smoke.
If it's the Big Bubba Killer 'they' say it is, don't you think they would have pulled it off of the markets? LOL! What a bunch of misery 'they' are trying to put us through.
I've never seen the likes.
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