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Friday, March 30, 2007 10:35 PM CDT
Our View: Let common sense rule on smoking issues
By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em -- but not in public.
We like that philosophy, at least in that it allows adults to make their own decisions about whether or not to smoke except when they are around other people.
But when it comes to putting that philosophy on the books, we can’t endorse a law to ban all smoking in public.
It is an established fact that smoking -- or breathing in cigarette or other smoke second hand -- is unhealthy. Some might argue just how bad smoking is or isn’t for a person’s health, but surely everyone can agree it is not a healthful thing to do.
We understand where local parents are coming from when they advocate a ban on smoking in local parks, an issue that lately has caught fire on the JG/T-C Web site. We don’t believe children should breathe secondhand smoke. Certainly all people can agree on that as well.
We do have a difficult time imagining how children on a playground inhale tobacco fumes from nearby smokers in an outdoor setting.
Even if the youngsters are downwind of smokers, the great outdoors has plenty of room for that smoke to dissipate.
The Illinois Senate this week agreed to a statewide ban on smoking in public places. Again, we think folks who do not want to breathe in smoke shouldn’t have to, but we don’t agree with a law encroaching unfairly on individual rights or dictating certain policy for businesses. Establishment owners should be free to make their own decisions in that regard.
We hope common sense can rule the day. Smokers, please be thoughtful of and polite to others, particularly children, who do not choose to inhale burning tobacco. Keep those burning butts away from playgrounds, and do your best not to share your habit with the unwilling.
Nonsmokers, please be sensible. If you are outdoors and someone is smoking near you, move upwind if you can. Be polite if you ask the person to snuff out their smoldering habit.
Parents, do the same: Keep your children away from the byproduct of smoking if you can, and be nice in asking smokers to relocate from playgrounds or other areas. A park is a public place, and it is for everyone to use -- smokers and nonsmokers alike.
We favor good health for all, but we favor free will and an adult’s right to choose to smoke or not. So we do not favor either a local or a state law to ban smoking completely in public areas.
Restaurant owners and other business leaders can make their own decisions on this issue -- and people on both sides of the topic should feel free to make their wishes known at their favorite establishments.
The bottom line is that in this country, adults should be able to make their own decisions about issues that primarily affect themselves. We don’t favor a heavy government hand in people’s personal choices. When those personal decisions creep into other people’s lives -- such as smokers puffing away near a children’s public area -- common sense should prevail, and parents and non-smokers should politely intervene if necessary.
Let’s leave the law out of it, however. Mandates that encroach on basic liberties are what really should -- pardon the pun -- go up in smoke.
-- JG/T-C Editorial Board
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