Let me take just a moment to express my undying gratitude to Dave Thune and the courageous councilmembers who have stepped to the plate under extraordinary pressure to resist this necessary change and the twisted facts and sky-is-falling scare tactics tobacco companies keep feeding bar and restaurant owners in the background.
Last night, according to the Star Tribune (not the Pioneer Press), five members � enough to override a Kelly veto � cast their lot for public health (and a sane business climate) by accepting a smoking ban with a nod to fearful bar owners who may wish to invest in an airtight �smoking room� to prevent workers and patrons from inhaling the poisons those who choose to do so may breathe. Sometimes, you just can�t stop people from killing themselves. The best you can hope for is that they�re stopped from killing anyone else. The real enemies in all of this are the people vs. big tobacco, not citizens vs. bar owners. While we�ve all been fighting each other over this proposed ban, tobacco companies, it turns out, have descended on local bar and restaurant owners pumping them full of misleading data about going belly-up if a ban goes into place when anyone who�s done their homework knows just the opposite is true. The tobacco industry as been the invisible villain in the battle to prevent smoking bans from taking effect wherever they�re proposed, using fear planted in our hospitality businesses as the divisive wedge between citizens and their restaurants. The wonder is how his constituents are allowing Pat Harris to vote against this ban when the number of bars and restaurants in his ward that allow smoking is all but zero. Those who live in Highland Park and outer West 7th are witnessing a councilmember who, obviously because he likes his own smokes when he drinks, appears more interested in his leisure pleasure than in the health of the people he pretends to represent. Life is a little different for Dan Bostrom, who lives in Smoke City on the East Side. Still, he does none of them or his residential constituents a favor by opposing the ban. The other councilmembers � Debbie Montgomery, Dave Thune, Jay Benanav, Lee Helgen, and Kathy Lantry � seem to have decided in favor of their responsibility to the public at-large and have announced their support for the compromise ordinance banning smoking except in specifically designed rooms where wait staff cannot go and other patrons are protected. Let�s pray that even those are few and far between. In any event, congratulations should be sent to all those councilmembers who have placed the health and safety of their wards� families in front of the special tobacco interests threatened by the ban. Let them know today how happy and relieved you are that they have served their city so well: Dave Thune <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8620 Debbie Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8610 Jay Benanav <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8640 Kathy Lantry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8670 Lee Helgen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8650 Feel free to express your exasperation with these guys: Dan Bostrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8660 Pat Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 651-266-8630 Whether, in the face of a 5-member supermajority, Mayor Kelly caves in or tries to keeps his political pride intact by vetoing this bill remains to be seen, but those of you who support him otherwise, but also support this ban would do well to tell him the value of consensus and compromise on such major health issues as smoking. Anything else is sheer arrogance. Now, Ramsey County is considering the same ordinance. Minneapolis and Bloomington are inching toward it. It�s a matter of time before smoke-free bars and restaurants throughout the Metro will be "de rigueur". Duluth and Rochester (all of Olmsted County) have all gone the way of good cities - and if anyone's gone out of business, let 'em prove it was the smoking ban. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was last week to enter a 200-year-old Irish pub like Doyle's in Boston and enjoy the antique atmosphere without having to inhale the haze of poison that once filled the place. The Burke family, who's owned the joint for the last 100 years, has watched their revenues climb and the variety of customers widen substantially. Be happy. We're going to be healthier here. As we are without Gopher State Ethanol to kick around anymore. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 ------ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
