Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

The no-smoking bans are the result of the pendulum effect.  For years, 
decades, smokers were, bar none, the rudest people in the world.  I mean, 
seriously.  They were narcistic.  Who cares if someone has allergies, let 
them go elsewhere.  Who cares if I start a forest fire.  Who cares if I 
litter the streets by dumping my ashtray out of the door of my car or if I 
leave a trail of cigarette butts all over the place.  What's your problem, 
I'm not hurting anyone but myself.  No one's going to tell me what to do. 
So what if you don't like me hawking up stuff and spitting it all over the 
sidewalk.

Well, there are some of us who are here to tell ya it wasn't just the 
smoker.  My mother smoked and I'm still paying the price.  I spent several 
Christmases as a kid in an oxygen tent with pneumonia which shouldn't have 
put me there but my mother's smoking worsened the effects.

Apartment owners lost who buildings or their insurance rates went through 
the roof because someone would "forget" a cigarette or would fall asleep 
smoking or, or, or.

So now the pendulum has swung to the opposite end.  The minority, which was 
at one time the non-smoker, got tired of it all and rebelled.

BTW, your state's bill 288 or 282 or whatever it was, died in committee. 
The restaurants won't be required to refuse people food.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
> First, Georgia has had a statewide ban for years.  No public place,
> including restaurants or bars, and you have to be 15 feet from the
> entrance of a public building even if you are outside.  Smoking is
> banned on all government property, including parking lots.
> And yet, people still smoke.  Ron and I actually had a favorite
> restaurant up in Chattanooga cuz you could still smoke inside. We went
> there twice...the first time it was great, the second time it seemed
> weird, but we still smoked there and I will still go back as a
> non-smoker cuz they have awesome steaks. :)
> Second, Slick Willie signed an executive order banning smoking on
> federal property way back in 1997...being a non-smoker, you probably
> weren't aware of that..so much for jurisdiction.
> For the most part, the way the federal gov gets around all of the other
> stuff is with OSHA.  Almost every building has workers...so, if you live
> above a store or where there are workers, you can't smoke. Los
> Angeles(there's California leading the way again) has non-smoking
> apartment complexes where smokers aren't allowed.  Calabasas apparently
> has banned smoking in apartments, so there again, you can't even
> exercise a right in your own home.
>
> > I keep reading that tobacco addiction is one of the hardest to
> > overcome. It seems so. I have more than once seen old ladies in
> > wheelchairs who are on oxygen light up the minute they leave a store.
>
> You betcha.  I have strugged for the last couple of months, but I have
> succeeded.  I don't plan to go back, because I'm not sure I would make
> it through the fire again.  However you look at it, it's not good, but
> people STILL have a right to do it.
> It's getting to be kind of like owning a Ferrari though, you can own it
> and park it in your garage, but you can't drive it anywhere legally
> because of speed, emissions, noise, etc.