SpeakOut 12/11

Call 471-6636

The young lady who delivers our paper in Portageville is the best one we have ever had. She smiles, rain or shine, and puts the paper where you can find it. I think she needs a raise.

This is to the smokers whose smoke doesn't bother anyone. Let me inform you that your smoke does bother me very much. I know that you don't understand why, because smoke doesn't stink to you. Well, let me tell you, it stinks to me. You'll say that I don't have to smell your stink. I'll ask how do I avoid it? You stink whether you're smoking or not because your clothes, skin and breath all put out the sickening stench of cigarette smoke. I have to walk through your fog of smoke to get through the door that you're standing in front of. I have to look at all of the cigarette butts that you throw in the streets, on the sidewalk and in the parking lots. I see your pile of butts that you dump out of your ashtray in your car onto the street. Do you think your smoke stays in the smoking section of the restaurant? I don't think so. Would you rush into a burning building to suck in some smoke? Of course not. It would kill you in a minute or two. Cigarettes just do it slower. Smokers have no regard for non-smokers, not even children. I can't begin to count the times that I have seen adults roll windows down on a vehicle with children inside and the smoke pours out of the vehicle. Smokers will say it's none of my business if they subject their kids to harmful secondhand smoke. Well, when children are harmed, it's everyone's business. I understand about young kids smoking because they will never get cancer just the same as they will never die in a car wreck (it only happens to other kids). What I don't understand is how any normal adult can suck smoke into your lungs, knowing the damage it does. Here's the answer that you'll deny, just like a dopehead - you are a drug addict, plain and simple. No two ways about it. I know this is blunt, but it's true. If you use tobacco products you are a drug addict. I won't even get into the billions of dollars of damage or the thousands of innocent lives killed yearly by fires caused by - you guessed it - smokers. I could go on, but I'll quit now. But please, don't tell me your smoking doesn't bother me.