It is not the job of local officials to play political games with public health issues, only to protect the public health. Period. It is irresponsible in the extreme to view this as a partisan political matter and not a public health issue. Play politics if you must with stadiums or something, but keep my lungs out of it.
Of course, a statewide ban is preferable. But if rural and exurban legislators wanted to, they could hold hostage the public health of the majority of Minnesotans who happen to live in the Twin Cities for others of our pet projects. The state's public health department is a toothless agency as it is, far more so than Minnesota's local health enforcement system. The cities and counties of the Metro Area could better monitor and enforce compliance with any health measures including smoking bans. No. The Twin Cities must set the pace and tone of this issue by passing the strictest smoking ban we can. In this we join two other much more visionary cities than we have thus far shown ourselves to be: Rochester (and all of Olmsted County) and Duluth. There is no excuse for dilly-dallying and allowing the lying tobacco companies to control public health policy in either the Cities or the state. Any politician who tells you this should be a state matter, not a local one, is either playing for time or knows damned well that once it was handed over to Capitol Hill, it would be dead issue in no time. That's how they do the policy shuffle down on that dance floor. But the right bill here and shake it all about, then do the hanky panky and turn it all around. Andy Driscoll Saint Paul -- on 6/15/04 7:16 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > While I'm definitely not a fan of Rybak or Kelly, I'm behind them 100% on this > issue. Instead of holding their feet to the fire on the smoking ban we'd be > doing everyone concerned a favor by leaning on Governor Pawlenty and his pals > to support a state-wide smoking ban. A smoking ban passed by the council > members of Minneapolis and St. Paul will only give Pawlenty what he wants: > More revenue for the suburbs at the expense of the cities. > > Thoughtful politicians ought to be subverting Pawlenty's vision,instead, too > many of them are acting according to his wishes. > > > Peter Schmitz, Downtown St. Paul > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! > Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! > Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! > 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 > 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
