I submitted this letter to the editor to the Wisconsin State Journal. I don't know if it will be used, but I felt that if it wasn't, at least it'd be posted somewhere for someone else to read.
Dear Editor,
I read a boatload of criticism in the Journal Wednesday about how terrible the new smoking ban is, how it's an infringement on civil liberties, and how it's going to change the lives of smokers and bartenders alike, for the worse.
As someone who supported the smoking ban, I was especially offended by a letter chastising non-smokers for leaving terrible tips. As a former bartender myself, I can tell you from personal experience that a person's smoking habits don't matter when it comes to tipping. I've seen great tips from non-smokers, terrible tips from smokers, and vice versa.
What the smoking ban ultimately does is this: it bans smokers from spewing toxins -- poisonous materials within cigarettes -- in a closed-in area like a bar or restaurant, where the ability of patrons and employees to relocate, who do NOT want to poison themselves, is severely limited.
It is not at the discretion of a bar owner to determine whether they want to put small levels of arsenic in each patron's drink -- so why do we pretend to believe that it is a "right" of a bar owner to allow acetone, ammonia, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, and pyridine, among thousands of other additives found in cigarettes, to be dispersed throughout the premises?
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