LETTER: People have right to be concerned

To the editor:

In Friday’s Statesman, Mr. Schane wrote a letter about how closed-minded people are about smoking, and sympathized with the smokers and the way they are willing to brave the cold to enjoy a smoke. I have to argue though that the issue probably isn’t about people being closed minded. It probably has more to do with people worried about their health.

Now I’m not saying that people aren’t overreacting. We love to overreact, look at what happened in Boston a week ago. (I really want to see what happens when an electrical engineering student leaves one of their tackle boxes on a bus someday, looks like that might be a felony.) I hope those overreactors don’t travel much because it only gets smokier outside of our country. But after all the scientific data we have about smoking,

I think people also have a right to be concerned. No, Mr. Schane, despite all the nostalgic feelings of rock concerts and Europe the smell brings back, I think we are headed in the right direction the more it is out of our air.

Scott Neilsen