Excuse our mess

When I was a kid, I thought it looked really cool when somebody would throw a cigarette butt out the window of their car at night. It would bounce and roll along the pavement like an impromptu fire cracker, sending a shower of sparks in every direction. This probably isn't news to you, but young boys are, for the most part, completely obsessed with anything and everything related to fire.

Now, I'm not so impressed. I learned somewhere along the way that littering is bad. Not only that, but at some point some poor soul has to come along and pick up that litter. I also learned somewhere along the way (from my dad, I'm sure) that responsibility = good; irresponsibility = bad. Throwing things from the window of a moving vehicle, especially when they are on fire = irresponsible = bad.

It's bad enough that smokers think their constitutional rights are being violated because they can't smoke before, during, and after a meal at a Lincoln restaurant. But, I suppose whatever arguments might support the position that "My right to smoke trumps your right to breath air that won't kill you" would also support the conclusion that "It would be unsafe to keep a burning cigarette butt in my vehicle, so I will throw it out the window for somebody else to deal with it."

You have a right to smoke. I get that. Keep your laws off of my body, and so on. Fine. Kill yourself one lung-dart at a time if you want. I just don't understand why your decision to smoke inevitably means that I (or people paid using my tax dollars) should be responsible for cleaning up after you, especially since you're such a liberated adult.

In a biology class I took in high school, we had an experiment in which we tracked the "migratory patterns" of smokers who indulged in their unpleasant habit on or near school grounds. How did we track them? The same way you track the movements of any animal; we looked for their droppings. We set up small grids in areas known to be densely populated by smokers, and then measured the concentration of cigarette butts per square foot. I was amazed at how much litter these creatures produce and that, without exception, the damage they wrought went completely unchallenged by anyone in the school administration.

The Journal Star reports that the state legislature may be picking up where Principal Wilkes and the administration of Northeast High School left off. Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney, Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, and Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center have introduced a bill that would outlaw smoking in any indoor area anywhere in the state. The bill would bring uniformity to the state, which currently has some communities under a smoking ban while others have no such restrictions. The same old tired arguments are being brought out again, how business for restaurants everywhere will suffer drastically if people aren't allowed to smoke. The article cites the example of the Trackside Bar in Waverly, which claims that its business is fueled by Lincoln residents fleeing the smoking ban. My first response would be that if you are willing to drive 15-30 minutes just so you can smoke while you eat, you are pa-the-tic. Secondly, and perhaps a little more rationally, whatever revenue is lost from an alleged decrease in restaurant spending will be more than made up for in the savings to our health care system, which is highly publicly funded. In 1998, economists at the University of California published a study showing that smoking costs $72.7 billion (yeah, with a "B") per year, and I would expect that figure to be even higher today. One researcher also pointed out that one in five deaths in this country are due to cigarette use.

As this bill picks up steam in the legislature, I would urge you to contact your senator to voice your support. You can bet that those opposed to it will be extremely vocal, so don't just assume that your senator will make a common sense decision and vote for this bill.

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This concludes today's anti-smoking rant. Class dismissed.