Editor;
Re: “Being stabbed is not as dangerous as being shot”, John Neilson, Apr.l8 Mailbag. Comparing being stabbed with catching a whiff of smoke. How can I compete with such sound logic? We also had the man that told me that if I believed that second hand smoke hasn’t killed anyone, why don’t I come to his house and blow smoke all over his baby. The man who told me I wasn’t citing any scientific evidence even though I started my missive citing the World Health Organization’s report on air pollution was a gem. Mr Neilson telling me that I hadn’t dealt with his position, when I had an entire paragraph suggesting that neither he nor the government has the right to dictate to private business who they should or should not allow in their establishment was the straw that broke the camel’s back though.
I surrender. I bow to all of this sound logic and sense of fair play, but I would like to leave you with one final thought. “It is not we smokers that are trying to tell you how to live or where to go. We are not encouraging government to tax the products you purchase, or demanding silly pictures on it. We leave you alone and let you live your life the way you choose. It is you dictating to us that is the reality and so far you have gotten away with it with impunity.
At some point in time the complete truth will come out as it already has begun to what with the W.H.O.’s report on air pollution. I just hope that I am still here to see it. But then again, having to live among people such as what I have encountered in this smoking debate, maybe I should reconsider whether or not I care if I am still here. Living in the Twilight Zone can become tiresome.
Meanwhile, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but after reading my letter in last week’s Mailbag, I noticed the headlines that Chonburi was planning a ban on the advertising of alcohol, beer and cigarettes. Ostensibly to cut down the amount of road carnage. This is the perfect example of how cigarettes and smokers have been subconsciously vilified.
I would appreciate it if all of my critics would apprise me of what study they read that proves beyond a doubt that cigarette smoke causes road carnage.
John Arnone
Yasothon
