Ban Would Hack Away At Freedoms Anti Smoke Ban Smoking Bans Should Be Up To Owners, Not Puritans.

I smoked cigarettes for one week in high school. My mom had traveled to Philadelphia to help my sister with a new baby, and I felt lonely, so I stole a pack of my dad’s Winstons. One afternoon, dizzy after my daily fix, I tumbled down the steps. My cigarette-smoking days ended then and there.

My husband and I do not allow smoking in our home. That is our right. I hate the smell of smoke in my hair and clothes and felt overjoyed when the newspaper banned smoking in the building several years ago. But though I hate smoking, I like smokers. In the 1980s, before the smoking sections on planes were abolished, I frequently sat in them. The people were more interesting.

So, today, I rally to the defense of smokers. In the wind now blows talk of banning smoking in all restaurants in Spokane County. If this idea does not become law soon, it will eventually. This national trend pollutes our air. Idaho, watch out.

There are good reasons to ban smoking. In the workplace, people must breathe one another’s air for several hours a day. Hospital bans are fine, too. And though I miss those lively airplane smoking sections, the ban did help freshen up the canned air. But restaurants, bars, lounges? Enough already. Back off, you 1990s puritans. People go to restaurants to relax, unwind, have some fun, food and conversation. For some, this includes having a smoke.

Banning cigarette smoking in restaurants takes away freedom of choice. Non-smokers have more than 130 smoke-free restaurants to choose from in Spokane County; they can avoid secondhand smoke by eating in one of those establishments. And smokers can choose to go where they feel welcome.

Smoking bans should be the decision of individual restaurant owners. If proprietors decide to allow smokers, that is their right. If they prefer to offer a smoke-free environment, that’s their right, too. We have enough legislation telling men and women how to run their businesses. Can’t we resolve this with common sense instead of more regulation of business owners and individual freedoms?

All this legislation aimed at smokers has a sinister side. It no longer is politically correct to openly dislike (or feel superior to) anyone else - except smokers. It’s OK to hate them, shun them, treat them like pond scum.

We need to lighten up on smokers. And let them continue to light up in restaurants.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view see headline: Smoking is not a valid civil right

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