You have to fight! For your right! To expose your children to cancer-causing pol-luuuuuu-tants.
By Dan on Mar 8, 2007 in Uncategorized
Okay, let’s smokum’ peace pipe* and put this Chief business behind us. Let’s not, however, smoke it in a vehicle when our kids are there.
Legislation being proposed in the Illinois House would make it a misdemeanor to smoke in a car if children 8 years old or younger are present. Not surprisingly it’s already raising the ire of many in the blogosphere, but it hasn’t really been debated properly until Nancy, Laura, and a designated member of the rock band Kiss weigh-in.
Personally, I feel much stronger about this issue than I do the smoking ban in bars. If it came down to negotiations, I would gladly return the gin joints to the butt heads if they promised to no longer make like Patty and Selma an transport their innocent and still-pink-lunged children in smoke-filled cars. But I’m selfless like that.
Several times I’ve watched the neighbor girl** load her months-old baby into the car and then light-up before taking off down the street. One day when we babysat for a couple of hours, you could smell the smoke on the baby’s clothes. Granted we are talking about a first-time mother and perhaps she is not yet mature enough to fully understand the responsibilities of parenthood, but anyone who wasn’t raised in French brothel should know that jammies ought not smell of Gaulloises.
I agree this would be a tough law to enforce and anyone who is so hardcore about smoking that they would blow it right into their children’s lungs would probably be emboldened, rather than dissuaded, by its potential illegality. Never underestimate the appeal of the reckless outlaw personae among certain demographics.
Long before politicians started talking about outlawing this despicable practice, I had dreamed up a guerilla PR campaign aimed at humiliating those who turn their rides into smoke-infused incubators. It would involve bands of anti-carcinogen vigilantes who would roam the city and plaster “My Cigs Before My Kids” bumper stickers on cars in which the driver was found to be smoking with a baby on board.
I have doubts on whether this bill will ever get passed, but regardless, it’s going to be an ugly PR issue for the pro-smoking forces. They can talk all they want about individual freedom and the right to partake of a legal product, but they can’t duck the reality that what they are fighting for is the right to fumigate their children in the process of satisfying their nicotine cravings.
I’ll predict right now that a majority of letters-to-the-editor that oppose this legislation will begin with a perfunctory statement against subjecting children to secondhand smoke, before taking a much more passionate stand against the further eroding of smokers’ rights. Others will state that when they were kids their parents smoked in the car and they turned out okay, their obliviousness to their own neglectful behavior and selfish attitude disproving the very point they are trying to make.
I also suspect that there will be comments made here that government shouldn’t be raising our children and that smoking is still a legal activity. I agree. But government has already made laws that prohibit exposing children to things that are perfectly legal for adults and I doubt that any of you would argue against them.
You can drown your sorrows in Jack Daniels but you can’t slip whiskey in your toddler’s bottle.
You can post online pictures of yourself in various stages of undress, but you can’t exploit your children in a sexually deviant manner.
And likewise, you can smoke as much as you want. But why should you be able to inflict your dangerous habit onto a minor who has no choice but to inhale your pollution?
As with the smoking ban, there are really only two legitimate opposing positions to this legislation. Either you don’t believe that secondhand smoke is dangerous, or you don’t believe that the government has the right to impose restrictions to protect public health. So which is it?
*That was intended for entertainment purposes only and should in no way be construed as the product of a dicriminatory attitude brought about by prolonged exposure to certain mascots.
**This isn’t meant to be derogatory, she really is quite young.
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Why stop at cars, why not make it illegal to smoke in your private home when children are around?
You got no argument from me when it comes to the kids who do not have the choice or ability to protect themselves.
Dave H | Mar 8, 2007 | Reply
I grew up in a household where both parents smoked. In the car. In the house. You could have smoked a ham in the dining room at holidays. When I got out on my own, I remember feeling my lungs get clean. It was a great feeling.
I’m all for pressuring parents to stop smoking around kids. If I had an arsenic habit, I certainly would not force my kid to do a dose with me every time I do one. That would be crazy.
John | Mar 9, 2007 | Reply
Private property.
The Abstract Prosaic's crushed soul | Mar 9, 2007 | Reply
Im very torn on the whole smoking issue. On one hand I think anyone who smokes and exposes me to the vile stench should be rounded up like the nazis did with the French resistance. Take them all to Guantanamo and lock them up under the rules of the soon to be enforced non smokers patriot act.
On the other hand we have a legal product that is now and has been
for decades supported by government funds. I strongly believe in the bill of rights and my home should be my castle. This should also include my personal property including my car.
As a healthcare worker I know that this is the only product that when used correctly, will kill you. It has a warning label right on the package that tells you so. I still cant condone government intrusion into what should be a private matter. If you want to smoke and expose your children to the hazzards of 400 deadly chemicals, light up Johhny. Just dont come crying to me or Medicaid when you have lung cancer, mouth cancer or God knows what else.
Perhaps we should have all smokers sign a contract that they will take care of thier own medical bills when they contract one of the most horrible ways to die. No money or insurance, see ya pal.
As for the children, “its always about the children” I believe in evolution. The strong will survive. The whole Darwin thing makes sense. Both my parents smoked and I never once put a cigarette to my mouth. I made the choice to not run off a cliff with the rest of the lemmings.
Smoke em if you got em……..
Yellowdog | Mar 9, 2007 | Reply
I say give all the cigarettes to the little Indian children. We Illinoisians hate Indians anyway.
Anonymous | Mar 10, 2007 | Reply
Yellowdog,
That’s as about as an insightful and well-balanced response that a blogger could hope for. I don’t totally agree with you on every point, but the fact that you made them succinctly, backed by real world experience, and without insulting anyone else, is quite impressive.
Well done, my friend.
Dan
BlogFreeSpringfield | Mar 10, 2007 | Reply
Well I was was having a beverage or two when I wrote the last comment so maybe I was a bit more passive than normal.
Thanks for the compliment, I think?
Yellowdog | Mar 11, 2007 | Reply
Personally, I think that any smoker who lights up in the vicinity of a minor should be charged with child abuse. (Unless of course, the offending smoker has a plastic bag pulled over his/her head with the drawstring drawn tight to contain the smoke). If you poured a caustic liquid carcinogen over a child’s head you’d find yourself locked up so fast your head would spin. And I really think that most smokers would agree that that is a punishable offense. So why then is it okay with smokers to put a child in car and force them to inhale cancer causing cigarette smoke? I’m sorry but I don’t understand that logic.
While I’m at, answer me this. How many of you (nonsmokers and smokers alike are included in this survey)have a playroom in the basement for your kids? How often and for how long do you banish the kids to the basement? Are you aware that Sangamon County has high levels of Radon seeping into your homes through cracks, crawlspaces and sump pump pits. Not to worry though. Radon gas comes in second to cigarette smoke as the leading cause of lung cancer deaths. Have a nice life!
Anonymous | Mar 12, 2007 | Reply
Henny Penny the sky is falling
Anonymous | Mar 12, 2007 | Reply
So as long as you are on private property, you can subject your children to a substance that knowingly causes health issues ranging from ear infections to jung cancer.
What a wonderful world we live in.
My husband was a smoker until very recently. He wouldn’t be caught dead lighting up near a child.
We make parent buckle their kids up but we don’t protect them from cancer causing agents.
Anonymous | Mar 14, 2007 | Reply
I think people should worry about their own kids and stop worrying about others. I think people should worry about their own problems rather than trying to tell others what their problems are.
I am in the crowd that doesn’t think second hand smoke is as bad as it is being reported. Most of it that is emanated into the air has been filtered through the cigarette and the filter, and through the smoker’s body twice before it is emanated into the air. Furthermore, those issuing the reports stating that second hand smoke is so bad, like the American Lung Association, are already biased.
One of your arguments for this legislation is because of how a child’s clothes smell? You are going to find offensive odors everywhere when you leave your house; and, like beauty being in the eye of the beholder, the difference between scent and odor is in the nose of the smeller. There are perfumes and colognes that I find offensive (and dangerous to some with certain types of allergies), but I am not going to ask for legislation banning those. So, if you don’t want to be offended, don’t leave your house. It is not up to everyone else to make the world perfect for you.
Anonymous | Mar 14, 2007 | Reply
Everyone, please allow me.
Anonymous 2:38,
I am torn between this being a fake response from one of Dan’s friends just trying to stir the pot, or you are just about as bright as the children that Dan is advocating to protect. Just in case it is the latter;
By your logic, if I don’t want to be offended by YOUR “properly filtered” cigarette smoke I should stay at home. OK. Give me your name and address and I will give you a reason to stay home. You see, I like to punch people in the face at random. So give me your address and I will be touring your neighborhood soon. There is a difference? I don’t see it that way. I see your selfishness as an assault on my body and yes, my clothing too. And selfishness is what it all boils down to. I’ll bet you are the type that checks-out in the express line at “The Wal-Mart” (as I’m sure you call it) when you have over the allotted number of items. You are the reason there is “road rage.”
The American Lung Association is biased against smoking you say? You really are a member of Mensa aren’t you? I am startled that you have the brain power to find a web-site let alone write something that someone can actually read (we will just leave grammar out of this for now).
There is a time for debate and there is a time to remind people what they really are. There is no point in debating this one.
That felt good.
Now call in Allen Funt and let’s end this thing. This can’t be real.
Gene Klein | Mar 14, 2007 | Reply
WOW Gene,
Who would have ever thought that something like smoking would ever bring out such vile blog rage?
The genie is out of the bottle and she doenst or wont ever go back. The government has taxed tobbacco so much that it isnt ever going away.
We (the non smoking non face punchers) will have to deal with the burden of those who dont or cant understand our rational for good health.
Now if you all will excuse me, Its noon somewhere and I have to go crack a beer. And not punch someone in the face. Unless of course they wont let me have my beer.
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Omar Cruz | May 7, 2007 | Reply