In a message dated 12/1/01 8:48:18 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< smokers are harangued about their choices and in the USA it has got
ridiculous >>
To me, what's really pathetic in all this is that there are so many former
smokers and nonsmokers who seem to have such low self-esteem, the only thing
that makes them feel good about themselves is to demonize people who are
still addicted to tobacco. And they do this in spite of the fact that most
smokers really do go out of their way to be polite when they light up, either
by asking if their smoke offends anyone or by stepping outside.
The latest trend in the US is to use children to aggressively carry the
antismoking message. Last weekend I was standing outside a Starbucks with a
friend of mine who was visiting me from out of state. My friend, a 54 year
old grandmother, was having a cigarette while we were saying good-bye.
Suddenly, a four or five year old girl burst out of the coffee shop with her
mother in tow and shouted, "Don't smoke!" (Excuse me? What ever happened to
respect for elders?) This child's pinhead of a mother just stood proudly by
as my friend, although embarrassed and somewhat put out by the incident,
graciously muttered something about the child being right, and that smoking
was bad. I was too shocked by the child's horrendous manners, and the
mother's cheerful complicity, to say anything. But if anything like this ever
happens to me again, I will be ready to tell child and parent exactly where
to go and what to do when they get there!
--Bob
