----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim McGuire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 2:02 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Smoking ban participation
> As to workers having choices you're partly correct. There is, however, a > class argument in all this. There are definitely people that are in > situations where they have to take whatever job is offered to > them. Apparently, it's ok that those people occasionally have to work > eight hour shifts in a room full of carcinogens. It's interesting that the "class" argument is brought up by a ban proponent. I've discussed this earlier. The ban has elitist undertones to it....... ban proponents are in it for the little guy because they know better than those poor busboys what's better for them.... the very people who don't have a "choice" to work but a smelly, noisy, smoky bars. Ban proponents are doing them a favor and protecting them. Again, it's people like you and the Minneapolis city council who know better for the little guy, the minimum-wage bar backs and bar tenders and waitrons than they know for themselves. Anyway, like I said earlier, too, I trust you will be lobbying your city council person tomorrow about the noise and the heat and the late hours and the bad food alternatives and the like to help those people in the bar and restaurant industries who "have to take whatever job is offered to them." Anway, I got news fer ya. The world is full of people who "have to take whatever job is offered to them." Last I checked, that was part of life. Being knights in shining armor for the poor unwashed who, by no choice of their own, MUST work in smoky bars is disingenuous. It's so patronizing.......... talk about talking down to and about the very people you are wishing to protect. I haven't worked in a bar or restaurant for nearly 20 years, and I feel talked down to by the patronizing tone of Mr. McGuire's post. > Also, there's the reality that regardless of "choice" the state has > mandated that no one smoke at anyone's place of employment unless they > happen to work in a bar or restaurant. To turn around your argument > regarding what smoking ban proponents should be doing I ask smoking ban > opponents whether or not they're lobbying to repeal the Clean Indoor Air > Act? If not, why? Since everyone has total control over where they work > (or so I've read) if one finds a high paying executive job at a "smoking" > office they can pass on it because there will be a "non-smoking" identical > job across the street. Apparently. Well, that would be the ultimate outcome, wouldn't it? But considering this city and state has never been known to put a genie back in a bottle, I doubt it's gonna happen. Anyway, strict consistency in this case is apples and oranges and only applies if "worker safety" was the real, legitimate issue that the ban was built on. I say that "worker safety" was NOT the foundation of the ban, but was merely a convenient rallying cry for proponents who wanted to listen to jazzzzzzzzz....mannnnnn..... without having to change shirts when they got home. "Worker safety" is an argument akin to the "it's for the children!!!!" tripe that we hear all the time. Politicians, and ban proponents, have learned that if someone is not "for the children" they will be perceived as "against" the children. Same for the ban. If you don't support it, you're not for "worker safety"....... when all along it's been about nothing else than personal convenience for a handful of people who care little about market forces or if a few busboys lose their jobs. Mike Thompson Windom Life-long non-smoker REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
