Smokers, take responsibility already
You know what I think? America should leave the smokers alone and the smokers should leave the tobacco industry alone. As the leading cause of statistics in this country, smoking has been taking a collective slap in its tar-enriched face for far too long. Yes, America is down on smoking. But what bothers me is the constant battle against the tobacco industry, suing it for years of lying to the general public and forcing it to pay hundreds of millions and billions of dollars to smokers diagnosed with cancer. Since May of ’94 the tobacco industry has been spending more time in the courtroom than Elvis spent high – and that is a lot of time.
Let’s look at this objectively. Did the tobacco industry lie to the people? Yes it did. So what? People lie everyday. I mean, just look at our government and observe the outstanding lying it produces on a regular basis. Do we sue it for that? No we don’t. So why is there so much anger against the smoking industry? Is it because it said that smoking was not harmful and it’s been killing people for decades? OK, I see how that might bother people, but come on! How could you not know smoking is bad for you?
In 1964, the Surgeon General’s report on “Smoking and Health” came out. This report assisted in allowing the government to regulate the advertisement and selling of cigarettes. The 1960s in general were a time when many smoking health hazards were reported. That means for the last 30 to 40 years the knowledge and information that smoking is unhealthy has been available. That causes me to believe that people who get up and testify that they had no knowledge that cigarette smoke was bad for them are lying through their puke-yellow teeth.
Smoking constitutes putting a paper tube of burning leaves, tar and sometimes mint into one’s mouth and inhaling it. And people who do this have the gall to act surprised that it is harmful. Of course it’s harmful; it’s smoke! When people light fires in their homes they don’t close the flue to keep the smoke in the house so they can breath the smoke. Want to know why? Because they know it’s bad for them.
Yet people still smoke. Let’s take a moment to look at the benefits of smoking:
• Puke-yellow teeth (as mentioned earlier)
• Always-attractive smoke stench after each smoke
• Vile breath
• Yellow fingers
• The early-morning, hacking-up-a-lung episodes
• Freezing your bollocks off while smoking outside during the winter months
• The always-delightful gift of cancer.
Despite the downsides of smoking, if you happen to cross a smoker’s path, don’t start doing that annoying little “your smoking really bothers me” fake cough and erratically wave your hand. All that does is make the person smoking want to light up three more cigarettes right then and there and walk in front of you for the next half hour. Suck it up and act like the healthy pink-lunged individual you are. Remember, smokers are a dying breed so let them smoke in peace.
Rich Timothy is a senior majoring in technical writing.Comments may be e-mail to rtimothy1@hotmail.com