Cigarette: A fire at one end, a fool at the other, and a bit of tobacco in between.
- Natalia Campbell
I’ve written extensively on the subject of cigarette smoking in the past. It’s one of the few things that I’m really, truly, intolerantly militant about. I’ve encountered a good deal of disagreement with my significantly-less-than-flexible stance, but I’m not about to apologize: your “right” to smoke ends when it impinges upon my right to breathe clean, non-tobaccofied air. Period. End of story.
The pictures above are, in my estimation, long overdue. I’ve always believed that people need to understand the potential health effects that prolonged cigarette smoking can visit upon them. While some might see this as yet more evidence of the long arm of the “nanny state”, the reality is that ALL of us pay for this addiction. All of us, smokers and non-smokers alike, pay for the adverse health effects caused by prolonged cigarette smoking…and thus we all have an interest in eradicating smoking.
Under a law signed by President Obama last summer, beginning next year every package of cigarettes sold must have a graphic anti-smoking image that covers 50% of the front. Currently, the FDA has 36 images in the works, which will be narrowed down after a public comment period. All 36 of the images portray the basic message that “smoking is very bad for you” in a graphic and unmistakably ugly way…which makes them just about perfect in my mind.
I don’t hate smokers; I just hate smoking, and I’m not about to apologize for that. Anyone who’s been around me for any length of time knows that I can go from zero to asshole in a heartbeat if someone lights up around me. I’m not always proud of that, but having grown up with a father who subjected me to years of secondhand smoke in the family car and living room, I simply can’t and won’t tolerate anyone smoking around me. It’s a simple matter of violating my right to breath clean, unpolluted air. You don’t have to agree with me, and I don’t expect that many of y’all will. That’s just how I roll…and it’s highly unlikely to change anytime soon.
