Editor;
“Alcohol vs Smoking” – Joe McCardle, May 23 Mailbag. Joe, I’m not certain of what you were trying to prove, but I feel compelled to correct you on one point in your letter. Joe, no one is dying from second hand smoke. That belief was born out of the false report of the American Surgeon General a few decades ago. People looked into the polluted skies and knew in their heart that the claims were false, but because smokers annoyed them, they ran with it anyway.
I defy you to find, anywhere in the world, one death certificate stating “second hand smoke” as “cause of death”. You won’t, because it is impossible to prove.
Ever since the smoking inquisition started there has been a slowly decreasing number of smokers in America. Further, the current laws keep smokers away from non-smokers. But despite these facts, there has been an increase in the number of non-smokers dying from cancer. There is evidence everywhere that the great smoking inquisition was conceived to appease people who find it annoying and to allow government to tax the hell out of cigarettes. And now, some organization of so called “academics” is calling for yet another tax increase on cigarettes.
In sheer numbers, smokers outstrip any ethnic, religious or educated groups that have ever been oppressed or persecuted. Maybe the oppression has not been as severe, but it has been constant and lasted longer than all the others. How can we get these people to stop?
John Arnone
Yasothon
