smoke ... free
Smoking law treats people inhumanely. Elaine M. Heiby compares the smoking "ban" to segregation of blacks and whites (or internment of Japanese citizens or disregarding Hawaiian culture), thereby comparing smokers to members of oppressed racial/minority groups, thereby comparing being a person whose behaviors could put others at a health risk to being Hawaiian in the 1800s, Japanese-American in the 1940s, or African-American in the 1960s.
Yeah, it's all about the smell of smoke, and how mean, aloha-free people don't want you to enjoy it. "Aloha will not be restored as a credible description of our island culture until all people are treated with the same respect." Guess what? I respect you. I respect your right to blacken your lungs and even your right to compromise the health of those in your life, by not walking up to you with a pamphlet that states the obvious: smoking is bad for you. You respect my right to breathe by not smoking around me. How hard is that?
I'll go out on a limb and say there are probably many things about any given smoker that I'd respect. I can respect a person for being hardworking, insightful, a good mother, a gifted comedian, an awesome attorney. Though I have to accept your choice to smoke, I don't have to respect you for being a smoker, and I don't have to accept your smoke.
Respect is built into that law. How can anyone be so confused?
3 comments:
hmm. i don't agree with the idea that smoke bans infringe on my constitutional rights as a smoker. nor do i think that you can compare smoking to racial bias. segeratation? eh, maybe. but that's like someone being quarantined with chicken pox saying that they're being segegrated.
as far as respect goes, you can enforce respect. respect is a social virtue taught by parents. hey, if you don't want me to smoke, tell me. i'm more than happy to. like my mom used to say, "use your words." however, if you're at my house, my car, or just following me around and you tell me not to smoke guess what i'll tell you? yes, i go out of my way to not smoke around kids and i'll tell them it's a horrible habit to pick up but don't tread on me!
err, rather you can't enforce respect. sorry, i was going to say something else but typed that instead. must be the tobacco...
i think that intrinsic respect can't be forced - true.
but respectful behavior (again, subjective to judgment but there does exist a generally accepted definition) CAN be enforced. like, with this law.
see, she's not talking to people following her or hanging around her house or car. she wants to smoke at a restaurant next to a family full of kids with developing lungs. and on top of that, she wants that family to respect her smoke.
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