Yareah Magazine

photo by Icefields

  Like divers that ignore “SHALLOW-DO NOT DIVE” signs in swimming areas, smokers take a calculated risk.  Smoking kills, but so does much of what brings pleasure to the human race.

 Taken at a governmental level, this “We know what's best for you.” approach is the equivalent of the nanny state, and humankind's futile attempt to make everything safe.  Condomless sex, alcohol consumption, fattening foods; it doesn't take much to reveal health deficiencies in anyone's life.  Life is by nature unsafe, and vice, even for an arrogant non-smoker, can be found in everyone's closet. 

 An ever growing portion of the world has decided that regulating smoking is not only acceptable but desirable.  There was a time in the United States when such an attitude was extended to race.  These laws, known as Jim Crow, were meant to enforce “separate but equal” conditions between Caucasians and African-Americans.  In reality, these laws constituted anything but equal, and helped to ensure domestic strife (even after the end of slavery) for the better part of American history.
  
 Some might be appalled to equate the rights of smokers with the rights of minorities (choice versus genetics), but take these Jim Crow laws, substitute “smoking” for “colored” and “non-smoking” for “white”, and you have the laws that are now on the books in most American states:

Buses:  All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space...for non-smoking and smoking groups. Alabama
 
Restaurants:  It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which non-smoking and smoking people are served in the same room, unless such non-smoking and smoking persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. Alabama
 
Wine and Beer:  All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall serve either non-smoking people exclusively or smoking people exclusively and shall not sell to the two groups within the same room at any time. Georgia

Housing:  No person shall rent any part of any such building to a smoking person or a smoking family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a non-smoking person or non-smoking family. Louisiana

 Restricting smoker rights, in the interest of public health, seems logical.  Let's get them.  Then we get the fat people.  Then the alcoholics.  Then the old and the sick.  Sooner or later, we'll figure out a way and come and get you.

Read more about Charles Kinney Jr.:

http://www.charleskinney.blogspot.com

Other articles by Charles Kinney Jr.:

http://www.yareah.com/magazine/index.php/issue-11-numero-11/114-11-literature-literatura/512-opinions-emile-zola-meet-paris-hilton

http://www.yareah.com/magazine/index.php/issue-12-numero-12/121-12-literature-literatura/546-metamorphosis-pop-princess

http://www.yareah.com/magazine/index.php/issue-13-numero-13/126-13-literature-literatura/602-ethics-hope-is-here

See more:

http://es.dreamstime.com/free-results.php?searchby=apartheid&x=26&y=5&changecontentfiltered=0&searchtype=free

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