Smokers and Society - Are We Fair?

Too often, I hear smokers complain about the injustice society has served them. All smokers seem to have the same train of thought when they feel society as a whole his dealt them a bad hand-that we treat all smokers like lepers.

Well, times have changed since the 40's, 50's, and up. Cigarettes used to be considered an accessory to being cool, with advertising and posters boasting the suave individual with a burning cigarette plastered between his smiling lips. Or a pretty pin-up girl with smoke billowing prettily about her as she holds onto a slim cigarette in her dainty red-polished fingers.

Gone are the days where smoking in restaurants and bars is the norm. These days if you are caught with a cigarette burning between your lips, you will get a judgmental glare and a gesture of annoyance if a non-smoker happens to walk by you. Even worse, a look of pity may come your way.

It's not that society wants to treat you unfairly, it's just that now we know better.

It is a FACT- smoking causes cancer. Second-hand smoke causes cancer. Smoking does not cause a person to be more attractive, slimmer, richer, bolder, smarter, etc like the ads of half a century ago will portray. Smoking causes your family members to pick out a pretty little casket for you.

Society does not treat smokers like lepers. Society treats CIGARETTE SMOKE like an outbreak of leprosy, because smoking and being around cigarette smoke is basically just an outbreak of cancer and other illnesses just waiting to plague us all.

Demanding that smokers do their smoking outdoors away from other people's lungs is not a slap in the face. It is a courtesy the smoker should be doing for others anyhow. Banning puffing away in restaurants where children and other people are trying to enjoy their food without the blue stench of smoke clouds to taint their meal is not an insult. Allowing smokers abuse their unhealthy habit in the presence of others IS.

Smoking is not banned everywhere. Society doesn't care where you smoke on the whole, just so long as you don't do it in major public.

It doesn't seem to much to ask, really. You can still smoke in your own home, your car (in most states anyhow, provided there are no children in the vehicle, unwittingly being subjected to your smoke) and you can even smoke outside most restaurants and other non-smoking areas. Just don't ash on other people and PLEASE throw your cigarette butt in the trash.

Society isn't unfair to smokers, because smokers can still smoke. They just can't do it EVERYWHERE. Hey, same goes for a lot of things. You can't skateboard everywhere, go in places without shoes on, or walk your dogs wherever you want. Those are just societal rules.

Smokers just have to get used to the fact that their availability to smoke is becoming more and more limited. Hey, it's just because we're finding out that cigarettes are becoming more and more dangerous.

Do us a favor-quit whining about it. And quit giving the rest of us cancer.