Smokers have rights, learn to compromise
March 8, 2005
By Rory Walkinshaw
Ka Leo O Hawaii
(U-WIRE) HONOLULU – Imagine, if you will, a hypothetical scenario. The year is 2015, the place, San Francisco, California. You wake up, get out of bed, put on your bathrobe, and strut into the kitchen. You put on your usual pot of coffee and run out to get the newspaper. You pour yourself a cup of joe, open up to the sports section, pull out a pack of Marlboros — or some other brand-name cigarette — and light up.
About 20 minutes later, you hear a knock on your door. Opening it, you find a uniformed police officer standing in your doorway. “Good morning sir/ma’am,” the officer says. “We received a complaint about tobacco consumption on these premises.” The officer can clearly smell cigarette smoke on you, and spies your lighter and ashtray on the table. “As you are probably well aware,” he continues, “tobacco sale, distribution and consumption is illegal under federal law.”
Ok, lets flash back to reality now. Before I go any further, I have to confess that I am the last person on earth who buys into conspiracy theories. I don’t think the CIA brought down the Twin Towers, I don’t think there are aliens at Roswell, and I sure as hell don’t think Elvis is alive.
Until recently, I didn’t think that the drive against smokers and personal freedom was that dangerous. However, after much research, I have come to realize that the anti-tobacco crusade is just like many other true-life conspiracies that have come to pass over the ages. Just like Nazism, gun control and the Pentagon papers, the fascist drive to control and restrict smokers’ rights is a seemingly well-intended cause that entails a far more sinister truth. The war on tobacco is not a fight to save the health of children or the public, but a fight against our liberties as Americans. This issue affects you whether you are a smoker or not.
As Americans, we are given liberties that people in few other countries enjoy. We can vote, speak out against the government, own weapons, and indulge in habits that, although we enjoy them, may be unhealthy to us. The mountain of fried chow mein and BBQ I eat from Campus Center everyday is probably wreaking havoc on my arteries, but enjoying it is my sacred right. The same goes for smoking.
How do I know that the anti-tobacco fanatics — antis, I like to call them — are not concerned with people’s health? Well, consider this: Restaurant smoking bans are very popular these days. Politicians claim that this is for public health and to protect others from the dangers of secondhand smoke. That’s all well and good, but if that’s really true and these politicians have the best intentions in mind, then they would consider the smokers’ point of view as well. It is entirely possible to create restaurant/bars with completely separated smoking and nonsmoking sections. In fact, in many restaurant and bars — especially small local businesses — it’s a simple matter of setting up some drywall and a door. Nonsmokers don’t have to breathe our smoke, and smokers can sit back and enjoy a Camel after their meal.
So then, why don’t these legislators adjust their laws to make both sides of the fence happy? Well, because they don’t care about smokers. What they care about is lifestyle control. They will do everything they can to eliminate and restrict smokers without any compromise, no matter what freedoms they trample on. It’s very selfish if you think about it.
In fact, if anything, the smokers are probably the most unselfish people in this whole debate. Most smokers realize that we can’t go back to the days of Humphrey Bogart’s 1940s smoke-filled Caf’e Americain, where everybody either smokes or doesn’t give a damn about whether people smoke around them. But that’s OK. All they want is to have their rights respected just like nonsmokers. This means compromise, which is the key to a just and fair law. The antis are unwilling to do this, you see, because tobacco is evil, they are right and if you think differently then you do not deserve any consideration whatsoever. It’s about government attempting to micromanage peoples’ lives.
Take the tobacco policy at the University of Hawaii for instance. I’m sure there was a time when students would puff away during lectures and professors brought their ashtrays with them to class. Things don’t work that way any more. So instead of developing self-righteous, jackbooted rules that discriminate against smokers, a simple compromise has to be in order. Indoor areas are nonsmoker turf, outdoor areas are smoker turf. Both sides endure some inconveniences, but both sides get something as well.
Smokers have indeed become the new scapegoat of the 21st Century. If you’re a smoker, its time for you to get off your butt and get involved in the fight against anti-tobacco legislation. Join Smokers United or Fight Ordinances to Control and Eliminate Smoking or some other smokers’ rights group. Fight back! Let them know you won’t stand for your freedom being trampled on anymore. If you’re a nonsmoker, that’s great, and I commend you on your health decisions, but try to remember the other side of the fence, too, and give smokers a little consideration.
Compromise, people. That’s all we ask for.
http://www.alligator.org/
