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Letter from Michael McFadden
The
following is an unpublished "letter to the editor" by an old-time alt.smokers
newsgroup writer, Joe Dawson. Joe has since largely taken up mountain climbing
out in the northwest US, but he still occasionally pops back into Free Choice
activism territory. The noteworthy thing about the letter below is.... it was
written in 1989... 15 years ago... long before Robert Proctor's "Nazi War On
Cancer" was even dreamt of.
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Imagine for a moment that a sick bigot published an ad
insulting blacks, Jews or homosexuals.
We might debate the
scope and limits of the first amendment
and the freedom of
individuals to say what they please, so
long as they please
the lynch mobs.
But
what if the GOVERNMENT ran it?
Nazi
Germany in the thirties? No, California in the
nineties. The only difference is that
the group out of favor
today is smokers. Anyone who dismisses
the comparison has
not been reading the news. Smokers are
banned from
universities, libraries, most places of
business and the
halls of government. They have been
denied employment and
fired from their jobs for smoking at
home. They have been
fined and thrown in jail. And the
anti-smoking campaign is
just getting warmed up: what lies ten
years ahead?
There are two fundamental problems here. First, there seems
to be a general acceptance that a
majority can do anything
it likes to a minority. If you are
unconcerned or even happy
about the present plight of puffers,
you should remember
that in one respect or another everyone
belongs to some
minority and that one day, your turn
will come.
Second, and more seriously, our government, which was
elected to serve (not rule!) us, is now
in the business of
bashing the politically incorrect. That
phrase, once used
humorously, is now starting to acquire
the sinister tone
that it carries in
China. Once we
allow the state the power
to coerce "correct" behavior, it is
only a matter of time,
given present trends, before we are all
clad neck to toe in
severe black garments and addressing
each other as "thee".
But California
has a special indignity reserved for smokers:
They must pay for their own persecution. The additional 25
cents per pack tax on cigarettes passed in 1988 is to be
used for cancer research, 5%; wetlands (!), 5%; indigent
medical care, 40%; and "education" - read anti-smoker
campaign - 50%. If you have no problem with that, try
switching minority groups and see how well it sits. What
about 5% for sickle-cell anemia research and 50% for an
anti-black campaign, to be funded entirely by taxing blacks?
The
argument that this is being done "for smokers' own good"
is demeaning: our bodies are not government property. The
argument that smokers cost society money is specious: about
one third of us considerately die before cashing in on
social security. The argument that smoke is harmful to
others is nothing but a subterfuge: the risk of second-hand
smoke exposure has been so outrageously distorted that it
amounts to an outright lie.
For over
a decade I have watched the growing persecution of
a minority with discrimination, harassment, demeaning
propaganda, unfair taxes and laws that fly in the face of
our country's constitution. I figure it's time for a new
State Anthem. How about "Kalifornia Uber Alles?"
By the
way... Hitler banned smoking, too.
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Folks who
like Joe's thnking should check out his essay collection on the Antismoking
Movement from ten years ago at:
Issues1
He
was one of my early inspirations at a time when it seemed like the ONLY ones who
cared about smokers' rights were the evilllll tobacco companies.
Michael J.
McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"
http://www.Antibrains.com
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