But it’s not illegal

Editor,

I remember when I was about 15 sneaking out with my girlfriend and climbing to the roof of an old barn on their farm so we could smoke a couple of cigars (with labels that said, “It’s a Boy!”) without getting busted. I remember how delightfully wicked and grown up we felt.

I also remember when I was in my forties being told I’d have to go outside to smoke on breaks at the factory where I worked because we were now a “smoke-free facility.” Inside and out, the building was a perpetual haze from welding, paint, and galvanizing processes. And the ceiling dripped globs of asbestos insulation onto the floor whenever it rained. (These had to be reported to the hazmat team – which consisted of telling the maintenance guy. He’d get a broom and dustpan, sweep them up and put them in a dumpster.) Smoke-free facility – really?

So now our city parks are going to be a “smoke free facility?” Having been a smoker for many years, I’ve gotten so used to being told to go sit on the Group W bench with the other rapists and murderers that I’ve sort of accepted it as my rightful spot. But now we rapists and murderers can’t even go to the park with our families? Really?

I certainly can’t defend smoking as being a good thing. It’s not. It’s a thoroughly bad habit in numerous ways. But it’s not illegal. It’s open-air so I’m not forcing anyone else to breathe my smoke. (Unlike the officials who are forcing everyone on city water to ingest dangerous chemicals against their will.) And I pay my taxes like everyone else – plus some extra “sin tax” for the cigarettes.

So why are we smokers being singled out? We accepted the Group W bench with reasonably good grace, so now why take it away?

Really. I think I’m getting too old to climb on top of a barn to smoke. (If you’re too young to understand “Group W bench,” ask Cortana. She can probably explain – she knows everything.)

Gloria Churchill