Billege, you are right. I started responding to this thread because the original question is one that I have been known to fuss about with my family for years. Then I became side tracked with other matters. Why is it ok to belittle and put down smokers with such ferocity? Smoking bans don't directly affect me, with only a few exceptions, since I have never smoked indoors anyways, but it does affect me when people are rude, hateful, condescending, and just down right mean to me just because I smoke.
For example, my son's teacher said, "When you walk in here, you smell like cigarette smoke and it's disgusting." Now I know I've been around people that stink. I've been around people that I just really wanted to introduce to Ivory soap and offer them the usage of my water hose for an hour to let them rinse some of the stink off. Do I actually do that? no, it would be very rude. So why is it not considered rude to say something like that to a smoker? Not only is that considered ok, when done to a smoker, but even commendable by some people, because she is speaking out against this horrible activity. How can incivility to anyone be considered acceptable? And what is it about smokers that makes it ok?
as for the rest of the arguments, that truly now I can admit don't resemble much of an actual debate, the fact is that the majority of people favor curtailing the rights of smokers little by little. It ALWAYS begins with logical, justifiable, bans. Then it leads to "you can't smoke in your own car in the parking lot of publicly accessible places."
I do have one problem with smoking in hospitals. One of the businesses around here that I cannot smoke in my own damn car in the parking lot is the hospital.
__________________
~~^~<@Xera @>~^~~
"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing." ~Erno Philips
|