How about a license to have kids? Or how about a license to drink alcohol? Or maybe one to sit out in your yard? Or perhaps one to indulge in a fresh glass of lemonade on a warm summer day? Oh, I know...a license to gamble? Oh, here's a good one, a license to eat!
No, now in the UK, they are talking about a license to smoke. Smokers already pay the price for their habits in more than just health. But it is our choice to do that. Some of us would like to kick the habit and will most likely do so eventually but it's not up to anti-smokers to make us, or to force various stipulations upon us. Trust me, us smokers knew LONG ago that smoking is bad for our health...don't need a village to take care of us now. Keep in mind that while catering to the rights of one side of the board, the rights of the other are being ripped away, and in saying that I am not talking about smokers.
Whether a person likes smokers, or smoking is really not the point here. There's a condo in Minneapolis that just banned smoking from the building, oh, not just the building, excuse my error...people cannot smoke on their patios/decks, they can't smoke in their garage, they can't smoke in their condo.
If the owner of that building doesn't want smokers to occupy their building/to smoke in their condos, I can hop on board with that although the terms of the purchase of a single unit should be reconsidered if a smoker disagrees because a year ago, that was not the terms of the lease or whatever is involved in a condo occupancy. I don't know much about that. But...and there is always one of those...to ban people from smoking outside of the building on their patio....what the hell is that?
The point is being able to live on this earth, in THE GREAT U.S. OF A, a FREE country. Being able to smoke outside without worrying about being arrested for it. Smoking is a legal act, it's not necessarily a smart one but all the same it's not illegal. Owning pet is a legal act yet my in-laws cannot have a dog unless they walk it a country mile to go to the bathroom at their condo. And I find that to be really irritating because many older people love to have a pets around...many older people opt to live in condos. Pets are good for people, yet condo's won't allow them...a right there is already gone.
I know there are those who read my blog who are against smoking and I respect that. You have seen what it has done to loved ones....so have I. But I must raise the question...how would those people feel if in fact in order to have a child a license was necessary? Or how would they feel if they needed a license to sit out on their own patio while enjoying a martini? Or a license to blog on their own computer? Your terms of owning a house were suddenly laden with all these rules and stipulations?
This crusade to force the beliefs of anti smokers down the throats of the world is truly infringing on more rights than just those of the smokers, I just wish that people would see that. It's like the whole global warming thing...energy efficient light bulbs will soon be the only way to go...no matter that they cost a fortune or that they're filled with mercury. Soon enough, we will be forced to purchase these bulbs and will be left with no choice.
Sorry for my rant but I'm frustrated with this. How long before this idea is in America? How long before I am not allowed to smoke in my own vehicle or out on my own deck? Or in my own yard? Things like this make me NEVER want to quit smoking simply because of the rebel in me. I don't try to force my beliefs down the throats of non-smokers...although this post might seem as though I am. Not so....the point is that the more people go after smokers, obese people, or any other pet project there may be looming, the more you are ripping away our rights as Americans, one group at a time.
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