Governor Culver will likely sign a smoking ban bill soon. This is welcome news to me. It will be so nice to go out to eat and not have to worry about breathing in someone else's cigarette smoke. Or worse, my kids breathing it in.
I understand what people are saying about how government shouldn't tell people what to do. But my argument for that is simple - their smoking affects my health and my kids' health. Therefore they don't have the right to do it in a public place where we are both welcome. You would think it would be common sense. You would think all smokers wouldn't want to hurt other people with their secondhand smoke. And a lot of them do care. A lot of smokers are very considerate and that's greatly appreciated by people like me who don't smoke. But since some of them demonstrate that other people's health doesn't matter to them when they smoke in restaurants or bars where people are eating, for example, then I guess the government does have to step in.
And I do understand that this is a tough issue for some smokers because they have tried a million different methods and just can't seem to make that quitting plan stick. And while I care about those people, I think banning smoking in public places will actually help them. The less places they have to smoke, it seems to me the easier it'll be to quit.
I am just glad this smoking ban is finally going to happen.
5 comments:
We've had this in Colorado for many years now and it is awesome. I love being able to go into bars and clubs that I wasn't able to in the past. And you can imagine how happy it makes Amy Wray ;)
There is some controversy in the theatre world, however, about allowing smoking on stage. For a long time, stage performances were exempt from the law so actors could smoke onstage. Just recently it's come up and I believe it was ruled that they no longer can, but I haven't really paid all that much attention.
On the other hand, the Deadwood just won't be the same if you can actually see all the way across the room.
Yeah, I'm kind of torn on the smoking on stage issue. I really don't know which way I go on that one.
Dieter, I've never been a Deadwood fan....
You should hear the people over here in Western Iowa whine about this. I've skimmed through the Sioux City Journal and there are two comments praising the new bill and about forty complaining about it. I saw a local bar owner on the morning news saying, "I hope all my employees appreciate breathing that clean air in the unemployment line when I have to fire them in July."
I quit smoking about three years ago -- I'm all for the ban! Since I quit I've been super-sensitive to smoke. I can smell someone smoking my old brand for miles away, and it smells like bacon and coffee cooking over a campfire, all sorts of mouth-watering goodness. Any other kind of cigarette, however, now smells like burning bellybutton lint mixed with kerosene and skunk flatulence. So I'll be happy to be able to go to a bar or restaurant without being tempted back into addiction or having to flee foul odoriferous emanations.
Having a smoking section in a bar or restaurant is like having a pissing section in a swimming pool. We all suffer.
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