Hello Minneapolis Folks,
(http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4824641.html): "Bar owners are perpetuating the absurd myth that smokers will refuse to ever leave their house, if they cannot smoke and have a drink at the same time. Just because I am a smoker it does not mean that I am insensitive and want to willfully hurt others with my secondhand smoke. I wish the hospitality industry would stop trying to speak for me and my "right" to hurt other people with my addiction. Besides, the ban might help me and others quit, and spend that money on the local economy instead of tobacco from the South! Chris Johnson - Fulton Ken Bradley writes: I couldn't agree more as someone who has also struggled with tobacco addiction, and the health problems that come with it, that the hospitality industry should not be protecting my "right" to smoke. The facts, are the facts, smoking kills people, my grandfather died as a result of smoking, my grandmother died as a result of second-hand smoke, and the tobacco industry marketed to myself and other children. The tabacco industry has profited while millions of people have died. Who's "rights" are we protecting? We are protecting an industry that preys on the public and puts profits before the public good. I have very little concern for the "free market" that kills people. We need to have laws that protect the citizens of our community from companies that "markets" products that kill people. If the city does not pass a smoking ban ordinance it will not be because politicians are concerned about "rights", it will because politicians are concerned about upsetting powerful-predatory-lobbyist. I have no more concern with protecting the tabacco industries rights than protecting a drug dealers rights to push their product to children. Both are predators and neither should be protected. Ken Bradley Cocoran Neighborhood. > REMINDERS: > 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the > list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing > it on the list. > 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > > For state and national discussions see: > http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html > For external forums, see: > http://e-democracy.org/mninteract > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic > Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/ REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
