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Kurt Sansone defends non-smokers from the onslaught of smokers’ emotional hogwash on the new law banning smoking in public places
The meaning of fascist according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary is someone who adheres to the principles of a totalitarian regime. In layman’s terms it translates into someone with the power to implement an I-know-best attitude running roughshod over anyone who may stand in their way.
For the past few weeks smokers have vented their frustration at the new regulations banning smoking in public places, coining the term ‘health fascists’ to describe those who are pushing this new way of thinking.
It takes some gall from a smoker to use the word ‘fascist’ to slate those he perceives as his kill-joys. If anything it is smokers who run roughshod over the sacrosanct right of others to breathe clean air by puffing smoke all over the place leaving non-smokers with no choice but to suffer the consequences.
I have absolutely no problem with the smoking habit countless of my friends have. Despite the emotional cry of smokers ‘if they are bad why not ban them’ I am not an abolitionist of sorts. Indeed I would even favour legalising drugs. Prohibition is rarely a good solution.
There are several other activities that are harmful to health. Individuals may not smoke but choose to indulge in eating oily Big Macs on a regular basis, butter their buns with swaths of cholesterol-laden butter and indulge in daily binges of fattening chocolate. I am not one to tell anybody what to do. As long as individuals can make informed choices based on facts rather than glitzy marketing campaigns I have no problem with what decisions individuals make even if it could be harmful to their health.
I am a firm believer in personal choice but a smoker’s freedom should not mean the annihilation of the rights of others. The entertainment industry has called for self-regulation with establishments deciding for themselves whether to be designated as smoking or non-smoking. That option may give clients a choice, albeit a very dubious one but it still leaves employees with no option. They would be subjected to the cigarette smoke of patrons for hours on end with absolutely no choice but to suffer in silence out of fear that protesting about the situation will lead to job termination.
I will not subject my health to the emotional whining of some smoker who feels inconvenienced because of a new law that tries to mitigate between the rights of both smokers and non-smokers. Why I am to be branded a health fascist because of this attitude I really do not know?
And yes, car exhaust and power station emissions are as bad as cigarette smoke and are probably major contributors to the high asthma rates in this country. But one wrong does not justify another and an outdated hospital incinerator spewing black poisonous smoke can never justify not controlling smoking in public places.
Live and let live is a motto to which I subscribe and that is all I ask of smokers; smoke to your heart’s content and let non-smokers live in peace. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
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