Think: It is not only your right, but your responsibility

To the Editor:

(Perryville, NY) Last night, outside the mall, a man with a gun and a badge told me to put out my cigarette.  No, he didn’t point it at me, and at the time I did not feel threatened in any way.  He was actually quite friendly, just doing his job, as they say.  I didn’t think about it enough to even notice if he was Paul Blart or Barney Fife. I did notice the gun, probably Barney.

Anyway, we went back in the mall and headed toward a restaurant that I wanted to try.  We don’t go out for a nice dinner often and both my girlfriend and I were really looking forward to it.  It was fantastic; the food, the service, everything was fantastic.  Our table was not too close to the bar, but I could see it from my seat.

I thought to myself how nice it would be to pay our bill and meander up to the bar for an after-dinner drink, maybe a bourbon or glass of wine, too full for a beer.  It brought back memories of days gone by.  You see, most of us smokers were always polite.  No one wants an ashtray at the dinner table and diners at nearby tables certainly don’t want our smoke wafting through their space and ruining their meal.

Courtesy or maybe the owner of the establishment, by his individual right as an owner, dictated that we refrain; not the government.  But the bar, that was the place to go for a couple of minutes and cap off your meal.  The bar was a place to have a drink, a smoke and make a little small talk with a friend or a stranger.

The kiddies were not allowed there, so the fallacy of second hand smoke was not an issue.  Not anymore; oh, well… ‘No big deal,’ I thought, and home we went.

I have been reading a few pages or maybe a chapter or two each night of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  Last night, I came to the part at James Taggart’s wedding reception where the crowd is lectured by Francisco d’Anconia on why money is, in fact, not the root of all evil.

I have been thinking about it all morning and, although it has nothing to do with tobacco, I can’t stop thinking maybe it does.

I will never try to tell anyone that tobacco is harmless; it most certainly is not.  But for some reason, and I’m not sure exactly when it started, I can’t help but feel the “awareness” campaign by various public health groups and, of course, the American Cancer Society, has been evolving to become something much bigger, and darker.

You should pay attention to the tactics used to control other’s behavior because similar tactics can, and eventually will be used to control your own.

Mike Smith

Perryville