by LaSal

Created on: July 01, 2007

NO!

I'm an ex-smoker. A 2 pack a day-er. Yeah, I know... I've heard it before. "We're the worst" when it comes to complaining about inhaling someone else's smoke.

I remember putting a sign over my desk at work, as a smoker, saying 'Smoking is good, the smoke attracts the Gods'... as if it were incense. I don't know, maybe nicotine was rotting my brain.

At any rate, I quit smoking about 12 years ago. And with the cigarettes went my wanting to blow smoke up everyone's a... I mean, in everyone's face. Face it. Smokers keep saying that non-smokers should be willing to harm themselves by inhaling the smokers smoke. Why? Because they can't help it. Same reason I put that sign up. I would ask smokers to recognize their willingness to harm others, by forcing others to inhale their smoke, as a by product of addiction, not choice.

What kind of public places would we have if I were to force others to eat whatever I was eating at any eatery, whenever they happened to walk past? I'm pretty much addicted to eating. And it makes me REALLY happy. Would it matter if I forced others to eat with me; or if I spilled food on their clothes?

How do we feel when the neighbor's kids blast the boom box, or car stereo, and we bounce towards the doors and windows, shutting them, hoping to stop the noise invasion? What if they do it at midnight, ruining sleep and knocking bric-a-brac off the shelves? How many people would be willing to call the cops because they're being forced to listen? Smokers included.

The heart of the matter is, forced. Whether it's forced to inhale someone else's smoke, or forced to eat, or forced to listen, if it's being forced on us, it's wrong.

Just like you (smokers) don't like being forced to do something you don't want to do,
we (non-smokers) don't like being forced to do something we don't want to do. And we don't want to smoke.

No one said you can't smoke. Smoke all you want. But don't force us smoke against our will simply because we're in a public place!

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