I've got something to say (Volume 2)

[NoBushSpokenHere]

Received an email requesting I start a second thread on this topic as the last one is becoming difficult to wade through.

For those who might have missed thread 1: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2864884

I am a smoker. I own the building I work in. I pay taxes on the building I work in. I provide a smoking area far removed from any area a non-smoker would be in or pass through. If I choose to smoke inside my building out of the harsh winter elements, it should be my choice to do so. Beginning Friday, I will no longer be legally able to make that choice. All because far too many people misread the smoking ban they voted for. Most of the adamant non-smoking Ohioans I have spoken to regarding the new law was unaware that this law would ban smoking in businesses in Ohio. They believed the law would ban smoking in restaurants and some bars. They had no idea the right would be taken away from everyone to smoke in designated areas within their workplace.

A non-smoker defended the law stating they had a right to breath smoke free air. I agree and as I stated to them I provided a place for smokers and non-smokers to coexist without anyone being forced to breath either smokeless or smoke filled air. They like others stated they didn't know it would stop people from providing designated smoking areas. I stated if they wanted to dictate what I choose to do inside my office then maybe they should chip in with other holier-than-thou-non-smokers to pay my tax bill.

I am seriously allergic to most perfumes, colognes and detergents. While I will become ill in public places in the presence of these perfumes, I do not believe I have a right to propose a bill to ban their use. They have a right to wear whatever scents they want. I have a right to avoid going to meetings inside where these perfumes will be present. I also begin wheezing when going through the detergent aisle of a store. Do I want to propose a law that these are kept inside a locked area? I do wonder the affects of breathing the toxins have on the children and the babes in the carts, but I do believe people have the right to keep their children out of those aisles.

Instead of fighting for legislation to do so, I would rather fight with the corporations that produce the toxins. Do we really need such strong detergents?

If the non-smoking anti-free American brigade would put their efforts into forcing tobacco companies and growers from adding toxic chemicals to the tobacco, then our cigarettes would be less lethal. I still believe even if it were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a cigarette had no chance of causing cancer, the anti-freedom brigade would be on a kick to ban them. After all, it all really boils down to the odor. Oh and there is the power trip they get out of making us cut off our right hand. Don't forget that, my non-smoking Nazi friends are totally enjoying the power trip.

Yes, to tell me to quit smoking in real estate that I own, real estate that I pay taxes on, is like cutting off my right hand. Right or wrong, I am a smoker; smoking is just as much a part of me as your right hand is to you. Telling me that you hate cigarettes is telling me that you hate me as well. Whether you mean it that way or not, that is how it is perceived to us smokers, the scourge of the earth.

I can't help to think of the people returning from Iraq to a society that tells them they cannot enjoy a cigarette anymore. They have breathed more toxic smoke from the bombings then they could ever breathe in a lifetime of smoking cigarettes. Oh, but the smoking Nazis are happy. What will be the next vice that is removed from our society?

Don't think you don't have any. Chlorine used in pools are bad (and you throw your kids into them every day), restaurants with enormous grill pits are bad (odors permeate the areas nearby), the beer and alcohol you drink is dangerous, and you probably have driven a bit tipsy a time or two, the chemicals your exterminator sprays on your house to reduce nuisance pests are probably quite toxic (your kids could get this on their skin btw), oh and all the people working in the factories under unsatisfactory and outright atrocious safety conditions would really enjoy having someone to work toward making their jobs safer. But you don't care about that. As long as they produce goods that you can buy to keep up with the Jones’s you really don't care what conditions they work in.

You see, you didn't stand up for my rights; you won't stand up for issues that need to be fought long and hard like global warming. You only want to have the power over the nasty smokers. Well you won this one. I hope you are happy. Please watch the cancer rates - I am willing to bet the cancer rates do not drop as a result. By the way, smoking isn't the leading cause of cancer. I understand colon cancer and prostrate cancer ranks higher. Maybe we should make mandatory colon and prostrate removals the law, after all society wants to be rid of disease, right?

Wish me luck on Friday; I may end up in a straight jacket or having to be medicated to survive this mess. Yes, I am addicted, admittedly. And yes, I probably should quit smoking, but I shouldn't ever be forced to do so. American the land of the free? I think not.



Thread 1 is located here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2864884

[pinto]

1. Locked.

There is a current thread from the original poster on this topic here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2864884

Thanks.