Kenosha's brilliant City Council is once again going to great lengths to show the world how backwards they are. Nine Aldermen have joined forces to quickly and quietly bring forth an ordinance to the council, which is set to go to vote in 3 short weeks, prohibiting smoking in nearly all public places in the city of Kenosha. (see Daily Kenoshan article http://dailykenoshan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6406&Itemid=102)
Its bad enough that we are recognized for being the worst in black infant mortality, and have the worst beaches in the nation.
Now, a simple right, such as smoking, will be taken away because THEY think its in OUR best interest?
I understand that many non-smokers don't want to dine near smoke. I respect that. But, why on earth do they see the need to change an all ready "working" ordinance?
Have there been complaints? What is this really all about?
Smoker or not, I hope people can recognize this for what it is, another Nazi-like move, restricting the actions of adults. This is ridiculous, and just plain wrong.
Please note, the final vote for this ordinance is in 3 short weeks. If you are not in favor of this ordinance, it is your duty to tell your councilman your thoughts. If possible, gp to Monday nights session and tell them publicly.
These people ought to know that they can easily be voted out of office. For NINE people to come up with an idea affecting so many, and quickly and quietly pass it through to become law is just plain wrong.
Something like this should be left to the people to decide, not nine men.
Monday Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. at 625 52nd St.
Its bad enough that we are recognized for being the worst in black infant mortality, and have the worst beaches in the nation.
Now, a simple right, such as smoking, will be taken away because THEY think its in OUR best interest?
I understand that many non-smokers don't want to dine near smoke. I respect that. But, why on earth do they see the need to change an all ready "working" ordinance?
Have there been complaints? What is this really all about?
Smoker or not, I hope people can recognize this for what it is, another Nazi-like move, restricting the actions of adults. This is ridiculous, and just plain wrong.
Please note, the final vote for this ordinance is in 3 short weeks. If you are not in favor of this ordinance, it is your duty to tell your councilman your thoughts. If possible, gp to Monday nights session and tell them publicly.
These people ought to know that they can easily be voted out of office. For NINE people to come up with an idea affecting so many, and quickly and quietly pass it through to become law is just plain wrong.
Something like this should be left to the people to decide, not nine men.
Monday Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. at 625 52nd St.
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10 comments:
Sorry, I disagree with you on this one. If smoking affected only the smoker, then yea, I would agree. However, you have the issue of second hand smoke. It affects everyone around the smoker, including employees.
Some places designate areas, but it never really works. The smoke still drifts. Maybe individual bars should have the right to be "smoker's bars." Let supply and demand dictate the rules? Touchy subject.
I must disclose that I am a former smoker, and we are the least tolerant.... I don't even like walking past someone outside who is smoking. I worked hard to clean up my lungs. Why should smokers have the right to pollute them? (ouch, that was pretty harsh, sorry)
Is smoking bad, yes and I smoke and I really need to quit. Cigarettes, alcohol, automobiles and motorcycles are all legal to purchase, all of which can kill you.
Owners of local establishments (taverns, restaurants, stores, etc) should have the option whether to allow smoking or not. It’s not right to have local officials decide for them.
What make these people think they are some kind of savior? Are they going to outlaw automobiles next?
Kissing a woman who smokes is like kissing an ashtray!
I am going with the majority on this one. In a confined space, if someone is smoking, I'm inhaling it too. Unlike if someone drinking in the same room, I'm not the one getting drunk.
Its not so much the smoke itself we are talking about. Its the personal FREEDOM to choose to smoke in "public" which we are about to lose. Kenosha all ready has a strict smoking ordinance in place, one which local restaurants spent $20,000-40,000 to comply with in order to make separate smoking areas. Now they want to take this away for our "health and comfort"?
What about Kenosha ranking among the worst of all beaches in the entire nation for water quality? What about Kenosha ranking THE WORST for black infant mortality in the US? What about Kenosha Schools ranking LAST in the State for standardized testing and graduation, and having the highest truancy and dropout rates? Or that our district has built a school on a toxic waste site? (Brass school)
We have all these had core issues that need addressing, and banning smoking does NOTHING in terms of real problem solving. This is Fascism pure and simple. Our current ordinance does NOT harm non-smokers. Why change it and take from people who CHOOSE to smoke?
I'm a smoker. I respect the rights of others that choose not to.
I don't smoke when someone asks me not to. I don't blow smoke in other peoples faces. Out doors? It's air. Already polluted by trucks cars and all kinds of things you shouldn't breathe in. ( any one notice the BAD AIR alerts a couple weeks ago? It was from wildfires in Canada!)
Non-smokers have rights. Where are smokers rights? Next they will forbid me to smoke in my own home.
I don't visit Kenosha restaurants because of this. I like to have a smoke when I'm out ..
I have mixed feelings on this. I smoked for 30 years, quit 13 years ago. It's been interesting to have lived during a time when smoking went from being promoted on TV to the new leprosy.
Banning smoking in bars seems to me the height of hypocrisy. Alcohol is a much worse public health hazard than tobacco. How can you allow one, but not the other? (Which is also an argument that NORML makes, but that's another blog...)
It reminds me of the firecracker ordinance we have in Racine County: it's legal to buy them and possess them, but it's not legal to use them.
The point is that IF public officials were actually concerned with the public's health, they would ban not only smoking, but drinking, the consumption of saturated fats, overindulgence in sugars, etc. I have no doubt that secondhand smoke affects others. But so do drunks. The health costs of the obesity epidemic in the US are staggering. And on and on it goes.
My ex smoked, but she didn't drive. When someone commented on her smoking, she retorted with a comment about the poisons spewed out with that person's car exhaust. There ya go - maybe the govt will require catalytic converter smoking devices for future smokers.
I think the main reason we see these types of initiatives is simply because it is trendy. If anyone in the government were truly serious about the health effects of smoking, they would be working towards the elimination of the production of cigarettes and smoking products. Of course, that involves the sacred cow of MONEY, which is what this and everything else is really all about anyway. Until the US is willing to come to terms with its addictions (nicotine, alcohol, sugar, fats, legal & illegal drugs, etc.), efforts to legislate behavior are doomed to failure. You'd think we woulda learned when Prohibition gave rise to gangsters supplying the booze. You'd think we woulda learned when the War on Drugs gave rise to drug cartels. Feel good measures like this do nothing to stop the billions of dollars in profits that the tobacco companies make while the public health costs of their drug production is borne by taxpayers.
I keep thinking that I don't smoke anymore, so this doesn't involve me, but a little voice keeps nagging in the back of my mind. I think it's the voice of my parents, who immigrated to the US to get out from under the jackboot of, first, the Nazis, and then the communists. It may sound alarmist, but if the govt is going to tell you that you cannot smoke somewhere, how soon is it before they tell you that you are too heavy or too light or too tall or too short or too whatever for a given standard? Ask a Chinese nationalist about personal freedoms. (Indeed, ask yourselves why we are bombing one country back into the stone age in the name of freedom while embracing the totalitarian regime of another - but that, too, is gist for another blog. It's ALWAYS about the money.)
This is a little long but fits the discussion.
*CATCHING PIGS*
THIS IS TRULY THOUGHT PROVOKING.
There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, The Prof noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told Him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting Communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.
In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked: 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said that it was no joke.
'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again.
You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.'
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America . The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax cuts, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.
One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Just to qualify my position: If it's a privately owned property that has public access, the owner has every right to decide if smoking will or will not be allowed on the premises. With that being the case, I will exercise my right to decide whether or not to patronize the place.
When it mentioned as a public place, I made the mistake of assuming PUBLICLY OWNED........
Yes, I was harsh. This is a tough subject for me. Smoking has directly impacted many of the people I love.
After posting, I struggled with the freedom issues. I realized you could make the same argument with Abortion rights and any other mandated "must do/can't do" legislation.
I think these initiatives come into play as a "smoke screen" for the issues that they can't find easy answers for... the failing schools, the high crime rates, the soaring inflation and recession.
Orbs makes some terrific points. What is next on the list?
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