Blowing Smoke

(This is a minor rewrite of my comment to an editorial on the Courier-Journal website) To quote the edititorial I saw posted online at Louisville's Courier Journal: "Terry Smith, CEO of Tumbleweed Restaurants, would have given the Metro Council an earful if he had been allowed to testify about a comprehensive smoking ban last week. To quote the edititorial I saw posted online at CJ: 'The loophole-ridden system that exists now, he says, "created a situation with an unlevel playing field that's unfair to the people who have abided by the spirit and the letter of the law. "Cover us," he would have asked, "so we can be competitive." " What? You can't be competitive ? Does this mean that establishments that can still allow smoking are cutting into your business? Does this mean that there are enough people who want to smoke while dining on overpriced food and drink that you can't make enough money by going smoke free due to competition from places that allow smoking? If so then perhaps the choice of being smoke free should rest with the individual business owners and not be regulated by the government. A business should be allowed to target what ever audience they want and have the freedom to make whatever changes are necessary to accomodate that clientele. This means that if they want to be, smoking only, non-smoking or a business that can accomodate both, they should be allowed to have that right and adapt to that audience. If we give up those rights then what is next? No drinking in restaurants and outlaw bars altogether? Well why not? If you passed that law then there would be no way that patrons could leave those venues under the influence. That would help solve the drunk driving problem wouldn't it? While we are at it, why not censor movies, TV and books that contain references to smoking and drinking so they could not influence children. We could edit "Casablanca" so that you never see anyone smoking or drinking and end up with a ten minute film. Who wants to sit through a ninety minute classic film anyway? Once we have done that we could ban drinking at home, if you have children present. We could issue special "I have no kids" ID's to show at liquor stores. Let's not stop there, lets ban drinking at the race track and casinos too. Why don't we just go ahead and make it a crime to sell cigarettes and alcohol. Lets bring back an expanded prohibition. It was a big success in the '20's wasn't it? Wait let's go a step further. Let's make illegal, the sale of all these prescription drugs advertised on TV, the ones with disclaimers that announce, 'this drug is not for everyone, side effects could include stomach cramps, bleeding and heart attack'. Maybe we should ban the sale of all home insecticides that put poison in the air while spraying bugs. Why not outlaw automobiles, factories and flatuence since they all emit a lot more carcinogens than second hand cigarette smoke? We could make air travel illegal since planes can fall from the sky. Ridiculous? Perhaps. However, my point is if you take away one right, you open Pandora's Box and set a dangerous precedent that could allow the banishment of many other rights. Not so ridiculous. Americans should have the choice of catering their business to whomever they want to attract and government needs to stop legislating our freedoms under the guise of 'protecting our health', when they are actually just catering to every special interest group in existence. That's is not and should not be their job. Only freedom can be all things to all people.