I am really tired of the government using tax dollars to make laws that are very hard to enforce and just don’t make a lot of sense.
I am not a smoker. However, I am not a “holier-than-thou” non-smoker. I feel everyone has the right to do whatever they want to their own bodies. I also feel that there is a responsibility that goes with that right and that is to be sure that others’ rights are being honored.
Having said that, I do not agree with the recently implemented new law in Salt Lake City which mandates that smokers may not smoke in any public park. No exceptions.
So that means that if someone who smokes is standing by a tree in a public park with no one in sight around her/him, and chooses to smoke, she/he could get a citation. This law is an “all or nothing” law which I feel is highly unrealistic. It would have made much more sense to implement a policy which was no smoking within 25 or 50 feet of a gathering in a public park.
So let’s see then. It seems that this law is designed to collectively punish those who are addicted by choice to something that has potential harm to others. Okay……I want our lawmakers, then, to outlaw driving. The pollution from cars is far more harmful than the smoke from a single cigarrette. Not to mention the hazards of possibly being hit by a car when crossing the street and the inhalation of fumes as one waits on a corner waiting to cross the street. Folks who are addicted to driving cars will just have to up and quit!
So if our lawmakers are going to make laws designed to protect people, get with it and be equitable – protect people from all pollutants, not just one.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 