Once, the smoking lamp was lit throughout most of the world. Now, how about a 5-foot by 10-foot cubicle? In what may be the biggest come-down since a millionaire lost his pants in the ’29 Crash, smokers in or about the local supermarket here are herded into a small corral, an outdoor, glass-walled bus-type shelter. There they may smoke, and presumably get 10 re-puffs to the puff since all the occupants re-breathe each other’s smoke.
It seems cruel to sentence these smokers to solitary confinement, or at least confinement of 10 people. A decade back, you could smoke in the supermarket, or two decades back in the doctor’s office. John Wayne took his on-screen last puffs as a wounded soldier. Physicians endorsed cigarette brands. So did athletes. So did cowboys. So did the movies. What would “Now, Voyager” be without that shipboard cigarette scene between Bette Davis and Paul Heinreid?
Two years ago, you could have smoked in the supermarket lot, and now it is frowned upon -- someone downwind, frozen in space obviously, might take in a puff. Today, you head for the smoking “shelter.”
Now, I am not a smoker. Tried in in my wayward youth, as most of us did, but it hurt my teeth in the fourth grade. I never got hooked (of course, no one told me that I had to inhale the smoke -- I just took it into my mouth and let it go, along with a coughing fit). I come from a family of smokers, and my brother Craig remains a major financial supporter of the Camels manufacturer. I worked as a newspaperman and could hardly see the copy for the smoke in the city room. Just after high school, I dated a girl who dragged on Parliament, and she let the ashes defy gravity on a long kiss. Then it was back to the cigarette. The addictive effect obviously was not my doing.
So, I respect smokers, in the past and today, though I’d rather they had never lit up and never will. Smoking is demonstrably bad for your health, others too, costly, smelly and not cool.
But up in smoke should go overreactive regulation that sends outdoor smokers to a small corral. Maybe the Big Kahuna also wants that they should wear placards with the letter “S” in 72-point type.
Hey, I can move away if I’m in the wind.
antismoking crusade is much like previous crusades. It is a social-engineering, eradication crusade decided upon in the 1970s by a small, self-installed clique operating under the auspices of the World Health Organization. This little, unelected group decided for everyone that tobacco-use should be eradicated from the world. Secondhand smoke “danger” is a concoction to advance the agenda. The bulk of what comes out of the Tobacco Control Industry is lies. For those who still think this is about pubs and just having to step outside for a cigarette, the current phase of propaganda/denormalization is to introduce bans outdoors as well. In a number of countries there are already bans on entire hospital grounds and university campuses, on beaches, and in parks that have nothing to do with protecting nonsmokers from SHS “danger”. Those who smoke are also being denied employment, housing, and medical treatment. See the Godber Blueprint http://www.rampant-antismoking...
It's a more than slippery slope about what we put in our bodies. It's a slow eradication of personal choice. And it exhibits a low expectation of all of us. Providing the facts is no longer enough. Now we must must have crusades ... and this brings out asinine warriors of all sorts who insist that everyone flap their wings according to their directives. So much for the "home of the free".
Second, this isn't a war on smokers but rather a war on smoke. I can now enjoy dinner at a restaurant, a beer at the bar or a ride on a train without having to choke. Do you have a right to smoke? Sure you do, but don't non-smokers have a right to not breath your smoke? I think so.
I side with what is reasonable. I agree that smoking where the majority don't like or want it shouldn't be permitted. I don't agree the govt. should regulate whether there can be a bar / dance club that permits smoking indoors. As someone who lights up privately, I disagree the majority of smokers aren't polite about the habit; however, I do wonder (especially in the city) if many have simply taken up the attitude that ''since you ban me from smoking everywhere, I'm gonna blow it in your face here on a public street.) I think we all need a slightly better attitude and understanding about each others little escapisms...
To Walden, Yes, I understand that the shelter was provided for the outdoor smokers, but it is a poor idea since they re-breathe each others' smoke, and shoppers seem to glance at smokers not smoking in the shelter, so it is a left-hand way of herding smokers to the place. And, certainly, non-smokers like myself have a right to not breathe in smoke. I just move away. In the old restaurants, I would relocate to an area where there was less smoke. If common sense and mutual courtesy were the rule, and if we accepted our "escapisms," then perhaps we could have less invasive and expensive government involvement.
Then you couldn't smoke inside at work. Then you couldn't smoke in restaurants. Then you couldn't smoke in bars. Now you can't smoke on the platform waiting for the train. When I commuted to Grand Central everyday, I always stood well away from others, preferably downwind. This is getting totally ridiculous. I'm reminded of what my sister said to me one day. She said that if she was locked in a garage with a carton of cigarettes for a day and smoked the whole carton, she'd come out alive. If she was locked in that same garage with a car running, she'd be dead in minutes. So how come cars aren't banned as life threatening? Or are we to believe that the smog in Los Angeles is caused by smokers? Also, for those who think more taxes are in order, when everyone finally does quit smoking, do you really think the government is going to say - 'Great everyone stopped smoking, no problem, we can do without that tax revenue'. Think again. They'll find something that affects another group of people. Maybe something YOU do, or drink or eat that will be deemed unacceptable. Be careful what you wish for, it might impact you in ways you hadn't planned.
A major medical center in the area is now totally smoke free. If you want to smoke you have to go stand in the road. I hope not to be taken there if I get sick as when I'm released, I might get arrested for smoking in the car as I'm leaving the parking lot on their property.