I am writing in response to the May 7 editorial by Alison Prange of the American Cancer Society.
As an adult citizen of Wisconsin who is fiercely opposed to smoking bans, I am personally offended by the arguments that Ms. Prange puts forth. She insinuates, in so few words, that we are a bunch of idiots who need to have our hands held to keep us from hurting ourselves.
Is this what the people of this state have been reduced to? We are all grown adults who are perfectly capable of making our own informed decisions and contending with the consequences of those choices. If we choose to expose ourselves to secondhand smoke, so be it. We do not need somebody to save us from ourselves and strip away the burden of responsibility from our life choices.
What Ms. Prange and the American Cancer Society fail to realize is that treating grown adults like helpless children is offensive and generally rude in nature. Personally, I don't recall asking to be taken care of and coddled. I am a nonsmoker and I generally avoid smoker-friendly establishments by choice. I have never once being forced to breathe in secondhand smoke, and any exposure I have had has been 100 percent by my own choice.
Wisconsin citizens need to rethink how much insult we're willing to take where smoking bans are concerned. We're all adults here, and short of a select few we're perfectly capable of living our own lives as we see fit.
As an adult citizen of Wisconsin who is fiercely opposed to smoking bans, I am personally offended by the arguments that Ms. Prange puts forth. She insinuates, in so few words, that we are a bunch of idiots who need to have our hands held to keep us from hurting ourselves.
Is this what the people of this state have been reduced to? We are all grown adults who are perfectly capable of making our own informed decisions and contending with the consequences of those choices. If we choose to expose ourselves to secondhand smoke, so be it. We do not need somebody to save us from ourselves and strip away the burden of responsibility from our life choices.
What Ms. Prange and the American Cancer Society fail to realize is that treating grown adults like helpless children is offensive and generally rude in nature. Personally, I don't recall asking to be taken care of and coddled. I am a nonsmoker and I generally avoid smoker-friendly establishments by choice. I have never once being forced to breathe in secondhand smoke, and any exposure I have had has been 100 percent by my own choice.
Wisconsin citizens need to rethink how much insult we're willing to take where smoking bans are concerned. We're all adults here, and short of a select few we're perfectly capable of living our own lives as we see fit.
