The Horrible Sin of Smoking?
In my youth – in a galaxy long ago and far, far away –
smoking was everywhere. Everywhere! When you went to see a Doctor, the Doctor
could come in to see you, while still
smoking a cigarette!!! There were
ashtrays attached to the walls in the corridors of every public building,
including hospitals. Ashtrays on the
tables in the Public Library. On every
desk in every business and on the coffee table in nearly every single home. The smell
of tobacco was so prevalent, everywhere, the only time you noticed it was when
it wasn’t there. Like standing on the
south rim of the Grand Canyon, and even then it was very likely the guy
standing next to you would be smoking.
When I was in the Army, GI’s would be smoking right at the
mess hall table. I was a smoker and yet,
I didn’t like the taste of cigarette smoke in my food. I would ask the smokers to stop and at least
wait until we had eaten. Frequently I
was told, “Go fuck yourself.” Jeez, stop
for ten minutes until we are done eating?
Even at breakfast – cigarette smoke and eggs? No. Not a good recipe. Tastes real bad. Forget it.
At that time, breakfast was the
time to get a good start on the day’s nicotine fix. Gotta get that nicotine level up – up, up, up.
The breakfast of champions – nicotine and caffeine. And then hit the can for a good shit. It did keep you regular.
Really … my mother, who was a Mormon, and Mormons do not
smoke or drink, kept a little tray of cigarettes and an ashtray on our coffee
table. My father's business included a
number of home parties and socially required events, so the ciggies had to be available. When I
got to college, everyone in the classrooms were usually smoking; always the
professor was smoking. When I started
teaching High School in the late 80’s, most of my students were already
smokers. The High School parking lot was
always littered with cigarette
butts. When they hung out before and after school in that parking lot, they
smoked. Nobody thought anything about
it. Even noticed, really.
Slowly at first, as we all now recognize, smoking was found
to be really bad for a person’s
health. I mean really, really bad. Where
and when a person could smoke began to tighten in on the whole American
culture. At first it was no public buildings, then, with
seemingly light-speed, nowhere there
were other people. Second hand smoke was deemed as bad as being on the working end of
a cigarette. Being within the distance of
a good rock throw of a smoker was – like – horrible.
When I was teaching High School at a boarding school,
students smoked in their rooms. Now if
nicotine is found in their urine, they can get kicked out of the school.
And with all the drug problems, teachers can require a urine
test anytime they have a suspicion of
drugs or smoking.
I have written about all the exposure of alcohol on
television and movies and stuff. In the
old days, actors would be holding a cigarette to make some on-screen use of
their hands. Gotta be doing something with your hands on-screen. Now, they pour a drinky-poo and dialogue with a shot of booze in their hand. And
we know, for sure, alcohol is also really, really bad for your health –
especially if you’re driving a car.
I just wonder where we are going, what we are saying, when
you can walk into a public place with a gun on your hip – bullets are
super-di-dooper bad for your health – and yet you can’t have a smoke! It is seen almost as not as bad to be on a sex offenders list as to be known as a smoker.
At a church I often pass, they have AA meetings. As you pass by that church, you immediately
know when an AA meeting is about to start because there are dozens of people
out in front smoking. Conclusion: one of the major tools to getting your life
back together after you’ve wrecked it with alcohol, is to smoke. ??? It
most places now, even in a bar where the whole purpose is to get drunk, you
can’t smoke any more. ???
Which would you rather have, somebody sitting next you in a
coffee shop with a gun on his hip and a pissed off look in his eyes or a
smoker? Who would you rather stand next
to at a bus stop, somebody staggering a bit with a can of beer in his hand or a
smoker? Who is more likely to t-bone you in an intersection, a drunk
or a smoker (who is not also a drunk)?
Where is the rational here?
Who’s in charge of perceived social sins? In fact, when and where did the logic of the greater good switch from personal habits
that are really stupid to personal habits that are really stupid and broadly destructive?
I’m just sayin’. ???
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