The very first trip I ever took to the General Assembly was to accompany then-Delegate Thelma Drake to a committee hearing where I testified about the need to exercise control over credit card companies. I recall getting out of her car and lighting a cigarette. Upon reaching the doors of the building, I put my cigarette out. After all, I had been used to not smoking inside government buildings, having been a federal government employee when that ban was introduced. (That is a story for another day.)
Upon entering the building, my first stop was the ladies’ room. When I came out, I could smell smoke – in this case, cigar smoke. I asked Del. Drake about it and she said that smoking was indeed allowed in the building and that up until recently, members of the GA smoked at their desks during session! As Margaret Edds said in her column today:
By all rights, as a reporter covering the General Assembly over several decades, I probably
should be dead by now. Other than “bartender,” if there were a profession or a workplace more consistently draped in a canopy of smoke, you’d be hard-pressed to find it. Once, I remember counting the ashtrays in a committee room. Astonishingly, they outnumbered chairs.
However, it is not because of the history of Virginia being so intertwined with tobacco that I oppose the smoking ban. Nor is it because I am a smoker. Heck, I’ve had parties at my house and retreated outside my own home to smoke in deference to those who don’t smoke. No, I oppose the ban because it is simply the wrong thing to do.
People talk about personal responsibility and how the government shouldn’t interfere in our lives and then they turn around and support a ban like this. Where’s the consistency of thought? Either you want government to regulate behavior or you don’t.
I don’t.
Everyone has a choice. I choose not to go to outdoor baseball parks that ban smoking. (Of course these same parks allow folks to get rip roaring drunk and then get behind the wheel of a car. Hmmm.) I sometimes choose to go to nonsmoking restaurants because I happen to not like smoke around me when I’m eating. But I am unwilling to impose my choice on someone else. It’s kind of like what was said about gay marriage: don’t want one? Don’t get one.
Don’t want to be around smoke? Don’t go to a restaurant where it is allowed. Vote with your feet and your pocketbook. If enough people don’t want smoking in restaurants, guess what will happen? Restaurants will be smoke-free. We already see that happening.
But for those who want to have a cigarette, places like Greenie’s shouldn’t be put out of business simply because government is “protecting” us. If the majority of Greenie’s customers prefer a smoke-free environment, guess what? Greenie’s will either adopt a non-smoking policy or go out of business.
Government is not always the answer, folks. Business people who are afraid of being the first one on the block to go smoke-free have no guts. If you believe it is the best thing for your customers and staff, then do it. Grow a pair and stop relying on government to help you out.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Wow, what a knock down site that was. I mean, between the Limbaugh endorsement and the 2002 Tobacco award, who could question it?
Certainly not some loony liberal like the current Surgeon General.
The screaming baby here is you, PJ. And since you make about as much sense as one (the only consistent theme to your (varied and contradictory) arguments has been me! me! me!), I’m getting off this merry-go-round.
Someone had to bring in seat belt laws didn’t they. With a cop reading the thread.
I am “spent” on my long dissertations today but… I HATE SEATBELT LAWS.
Thankfully, their enforcement is discretionary…
Well, then, we would be remiss if someone did not mention mandatory helmets for bicycles and motorcycles!
Same thing…
Although I will say this. I am FOR mandantory seat belts for kids, seats for infants. They rely on us to make decisions for them until they are old enough to do it themselves.
Isn’t that what PARENTS are for, Grumpy?
The moment you look to government to save you from yourself (Or to parent your children) you are saying that you are:
a) An idiot
b) A bad parent
c) too stupid to know what your children are doing
d) too stupid to know what to do that is sfae
e) all of the above
I took a crap today and there was no one there to tell me to wipe… WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT?!?!?
Sound dumb? Yes you do. Yes you do.
Or too stupid to be able to spell.. like me:-)
afae = safe
I’ve been too busy lately to do very much blog reading (I haven’t even taken time to read Jerry Fuhrman in days).
badrose called me this evening and directed me here. I’m glad I came.
Vivian, I’ve always known you are a straight up person. Excessive regulation is just that, excessive. Hold your ground on this one. And the seat belt thing as well.
I’ve almost always agreed with you. At least on most fiscal issues as well as many social issues. I agree with Squeaky more often, but that’s to be expected, I suppose. I’m somewhat unrefined that way.
I have yet to find common ground with Eileen, and from her attitude during the previous blog conference I’m well aware of her petulant personality, so her comments do not surprise me.
phriendlyjaime, there’s hope for you yet girl. We finally find a strong belief that we share, now dump that toady guy and let a real man show what life is all about….(That last phrase was satire, for those of you who are not predisposed to understand it.)
Am so surprised at the nastiness Dems are spewing at each other. I am glad the ban didn’t pass and am right with Vivian on this one.
So much for the big tent, eh? Lots of the Dems just attack whoever or whatever they don’t agree with. Grow up people.
I won’t attack them for wanting more government regulation and for supporting a poorly worded and over-reaching bill – but man. After reading all the posts I want to!
I still like this part of Vivian’s article:
Government is not always the answer, folks. Business people who are afraid of being the first one on the block to go smoke-free have no guts. If you believe it is the best thing for your customers and staff, then do it. Grow a pair and stop relying on government to help you out.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. 🙂 🙂
So, now that this did not pass, can you all just join hands and be friends again? Maybe you could meet at a restaurant and make up. Wait, what section would you sit in?
Wow…this really got off subject! I’m doing a paper for a college English class regarding smoking bans and whether it is right or wrong to have them.
I just wanted to tell Vivian thanks; I was able to get most of the information I needed regarding a smoker’s point of view on the bans!!
Glad to know we could help. Hope you get an A on the paper 😉
I am a non-smoker. I used to smoke back in 1996. I only did it because the woman I dated was a smoker. But, the treatment smokers are getting today is deplorable. Their rights are being taken away worse than crime victims! If you are a smoker, you cannot sit and be comfortable in a restaurant, a lounge or an office building because of laws. What brought this on? The tobacco companies deceived the American public. They targeted minorities to market their addictive cigarettes. Okay. Let the government wage war on Big Tobacco. My next-door neighbor lighting up a Kool has nothing to do with corporate-induced racism. I’ve waited tables in restaurants and sports bars. I’ve caroused nightclubs. Smoke got on my clothes. Smoke got in my hair. My best friend has smoked for the twelve years I’ve known her. These new anti-smoking laws are bias and ridiculous! They are not right in my eyes! This smokescreen only is concealing the real problem in our country. Our present government is a joke. Give me a chain-smoking president with common sense than the leadership we have now!
We simply must go smokefree. The sooner the better. Lives are at stake.