I have been thinking about this smoking ban for a couple of days and have concluded that it is simply dumb for a city like Minneapolis to ban smoking. Minneapolis is so small that smokers only have to go about a mile in any direction and they are free of the ban. Of course, St. Paul may ban smoking, but that only makes it slightly more complicated. Also, Minneapolis has spent tens of millions of dollars on a convention center and losing a few conventions a year is no longer a concern for our city council anymore. Conventions have to go to New York, but they don't have to come here. So it's a good idea to offer as friendly a city as possible; banning smoking ( as it will be known) is just not a friendly act and smokers will just go away. Anyway, the problem is faulty ventilation. If the bar vents air out at the ceiling, the problem ends.
The reason given for this proposed ban is that it is claimed that all
these people, like waiters and bartenders, get lung cancer from second
hand smoke. Well , I've read some of the studies and it seems that some of the experts sort of think it may happen, and some suggest that it could happen, but that such incidents, if they are really due to second hand smoke, are very rare, if they exist at all.
However, if health is really the issue here, I propose that the City Council pass limits on alcohol consumption. It would work like this: A patron would be asked to take a breath test to establish sobriety and then would be allowed to drink one ounce of liquor, or three ounces of wine, or 10 ounces of beer for every hour in the bar. Just think, the Minneapolis City Council can save the lives of those who would have died while drinking or the lives of those who will be killed due to other person's drinking. Surely, the numbers of lives saved here is several thousand times higher than the deaths from second hand smoke, if there are any. Remember, also, that the smoking ban will hurt the city in the long term. By banning smoking and limiting drinking we will have the perfectly safe city.
I'm not worried about second hand smoke: I worry about drunk drivers on behalf of my wife, children, and all of you. Let our City Council get it right. Limit drinking to one ounce of ethanol per hour. The only reason they are thinking of banning smoking is because they can. It's a power thing. And these are the people who built a garbage burner in downtown. Clark Griffith, Lowry Hill, Minneapolis.
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