On smoking: Just in...

…from a night at the company Christmas party and out afterwards.

First off, we almost had to leave the Christmas party from the amount of smoking there, however I didn’t want to lose face before my bosses. That’s my fault I guess for being born in Alabama, where smokers rule, education drools, men are men and the sheep are scared.

After three hours of the de facto smoking chamber, I had to go and take a breathing treatment for my emphysema. Had we the laws in effect here that are in Seattle, I wouldn’t have damaged my standing in the eyes of my bosses by showing my weakness. But that’s my fault, too, for having a rare genetic disorder (AAT deficiency, look it up) that made me extraordinarily susceptible to pulmonary damage.

Afterward, we went to a little bar I frequent on a weekly basis. It’s the only place in this little town that has jazz on a weekly basis. In fact, it’s THE ONLY bar that delivers quality music on a regular basis.

Problem is, the smokers normally match the non-smokers tit for tat and make the air in there unsuitable for for those without a Phillip Morris product dangling from their lips. We left after a while, our friends in the band nodded in understanding as we dipped out early.

Sure, we don’t have to frequent the joint. Regardless of the fact that it’s the only place in this little town with a slightly cosmopolitan atmosphere, that it’s the only place that I can go and get my musical fix and talk with people who aren’t of the typical Freeper variety. That’s my fault for having such standards or predilections. Of course, it wouldn’t matter at any of the other live music venues in town as they are all smog factories, too. But that’s our fault, too, for loving music and wanting to listen to something not on CD. How dare we.

And my friends, the musicians who are starting to turn up with respiratory problems in their 40s despite the fact that they aren’t smoking, that’s their fault, too, for having musical gifts, for telling themselves when they were young that they would follow that dream. Shouldn’t every musician expect to be asthmatic by the time they are 50? If not, what were they thinking? How dare they be musicians!

I smoked for a while. I quit when I felt it affecting me but the damage didn’t stop there. It continued on until I was forced to seek a pulmonologist’s advice.

How dare I!! How dare I ask that the air be clear when I go somewhere to hear music. And, yes, I’m affecting the purity of my health by imbibing in alcohol. Those four drinks a week I sip in order to try and support jazz in my town must mean for sure that I don’t care how well I breathe. That’s what you tell me anyway. Since when did the license to sell alcohol carry an implicit rider that anyone coming in to buy that product will have to be subjected to something else entirely?

Some would say, “if you don’t like it, then leave.” You would be correct in a way – although that doesn’t take the weight from your usage of a perspective voiced by umpteen xenophobes and hyper-conservatives – although my marital and financial situation doesn’t allow that option at the moment. But I guess that’s my fault for finding a woman I love.

As such, I don’t have the freedom of mobility I had when I was single. Due to several dynamics -- not the least of which being the passive-aggressive domination games my wife’s family deploys -- we can no more move away from here than we could buy the Sears Tower. When you live in a two-bit town with a perpetually depressed and closed economy, you can’t afford to save up to move anywhere.

So my choices are the lung damage, or sitting outside in the weather to listen and contracting pneumonia (which I’ve done twice) from the ever-damp conditions. But that’s my fault for loving music.

In short, I’VE GOT NO FREAKIN’ CHOICE!! I either have to subject myself closer to the reality of being on oxygen within the next few years or resign myself to never hearing live jazz again while maintaining social ties with longtime friends.

By the attitudes of some, my only choice is to sit in my house night after night remembering what it was like to be a member of a community. Boy howdy, THAT sure sounds like a top-notch life.

And, yes, I think it ridiculous that cigar bars and hookah bars are outlawed in certain areas. Those establishments are founded FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE of promoting tobacco use. That’s a big g-damn difference than purchasing a license that gives you permission to sell alcohol. Nothing in that alcohol license states anything about tobacco.

And for all you uber-defensive smokers who proclaim that I release more noxious fumes from my car than you do from you cigarettes (and you’re right), then when I drive my car into a bar and force you to inhale the exhaust in a closed space, just let me know. I’ll gladly pull it back outside again when you agree to do all your cigarette smoking outdoors.

So what are you doing about it? Are you active in any anti-smoking groups? Do you donate money to the American Cancer Society and whatever other organizations help the cause of non-smokers? Do you boycott smoker-friendly establishments? Where I come from there are bars where people smoke and ones where they don't. Personally it seems like a good idea to have both kinds of bars in an area. But it is a matter of economics. The smoke-free bars are less popular than the ones that allow it. If you want to get rid of smoking in bars, do something about it instead of just complaining and yet continuing to go there.

I don't smoke EXCEPT when I drink. I think there are a lot of people like that. They smoke at the bar because it helps slow down their drinking. I wouldn't want that to be taken away from me. Good thing I guess tobacco companies put more effort into lobbying than people such as yourself who are happy to complain, but probably won't act much on it. O8)

thanks. what is n/t?????:eyes:

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

...to push through local ordinances but they keep being tabled and withering away. From the reaction of most of these folks, you'd think we were trying to peel the "W" and confederate flag stickers from their trucks and SUVs.

We've done what we can to call attention to it, running cover features on the problem and the proposed city codes in the newspaper for which I work.

We can only do so much when the majority of people don't care enough about health to even make sure there's no sewage in the local water supply water, as has been the case in part of our community here for over a month now.

A fellow newspaper person. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. It's nice to meet people who actually DO something about the issues they care about :). It can be frustrating though when so many people are happy leading ignorant, unhealthy, passive lives. Good luck.

Those too place you at great risk. Point(s) in case, drunk drivers and factory farming. Not sure which of the three (smokers, drinkers, or meat eaters) are going to kill you first...but bottom line, we all die sometime. So do what you love because you love it... if the personal risk are higher than your love...well then perhaps you should re-evaluate your "relationship". *grin. But don't rely on the actions of "others" to make your life easier.

MZr7

You have a lot of reasons why it's someone else's fault that you live where you live. Either accept that that's where you live or work to change things.

In the meantime, I'd give my left nut if my only problem were smokey bars. Count your blessings.

...if you'll check a post above you'll see where I reference the efforts I have put forward in my limited scope.

The point of my post was to hopefully make some realize that now every town is like Seattle (re: earlier thread that garnered close to 3000 posts in one day) in that in most places, people are working under a whole different set of cultural mores and attitudes and a much more limited amount of choices.

Yes, I think it ridiculous that the Seattle ordinance doesn't allow for cigar bars and hookah bars. That is the express purpose of those joints and nobody wanders in for other purposes.

You're also correct in that I'm lucky if emphysema is my only problem. There are people in my community for whom life is much harsher. Ironically, most of them smoke tobacco as is the case as you move further down the socio-economic line.

we also live in a place with too many smokers. am on sabbatical for a year and living in a smoke-free place now, but am dreading having to return there. after many years of trying, we finally got the City Council to enact a no indoor smoking policy for restaurants and some other establishments like bowling alleys, etc., so i do understand the difficulty in getting this done. it sounds like misanthrope's area is even more intractible to change than ours was. for those of you who tell us to just get active to change things or move, it's not quite that simple. changing the 'inbred' habits of some populations is like trying to work your way through a brick using a dust rag. and telling him to either move or rethink the importance of his 'relationship' is really pretty cold.

...is the very definition of intractibility. Ask TahitiNut.

them, including children, friends and of course family.

Smoking is smelly, harmful, dangerous and selfish.

I believe it should eventually be banned from all public places, for the good of all.

Those who want to indulge should do so in solitude, on their own private property so that they don't subject others to their dangerous addiction.

I smoked for more than 20 years.

Our family has lost both sets of grandparents to smoking. I've lost upwards of 20 friends in the music industry from smoking related illnesses and cancers.

I still suffer the damage from smoking for some 40 years, thanks to my parents addictions which forced me, as an infant, to smoke their smoke, then to become an addict on my own. Thankfully I had the force of will to quit 3-4 years ago.

Don't smoke. It's a bad idea that harms everyone.

Thank you for this post. This is very important to me.
I don't have a pulmonary condition myself, but I do have a pretty low tolerance for it.
More importantly, have friends who have asthma emphysmia, etc because I am involved in disability rights.
Aside from entertainment, smoke may be a factor that interferes with the potential for a person to get a job somewhere.
Voluntary behaviors that can easily be conducted elsewhere should not keep people out of the community.
We should have equal opportunity to enjoy our environment--- to socialize, listen to music, eat.
And we should also have equal opportunities for employment.

i've run into some nightclubs where the entertainers themselves refused to play until all smoking ceased. and i've worked in smoky bars all my life. some people, like yourself, are affected by smoke differently, and that's a real legitimate complaint on your part.

i don't know of any solutions, other than to complain to the club owners and city officials. but at least you've made some folks aware of your particular problem. i feel for you.

i smoke cigars, but not in public.

Above all else, business owners want to make money. If there is a demand for a smoke-free night, it would be in the owner's best interest to hold one.

Here's the thing... I don't like drunks. I find them and their actions to be detrimental to my own life. I don't want anyone drinking around my children or around me. So, our family frequents establishments which do not offer alcohol. More than once we've requested that area restaurants host alcohol-free, smoke-free nights and advertise them as family-friendly evenings. Every restaurant we've approached have done so -- and those nights, which were previously not very profitable, have become busy nights for them.

It's a free country and you're definitely free to rant and rave. I think your argument will hold more water, however, if you are willing to take your own frustration and turn it into a positive action.

All I hear are rationalizations for making choices and ignoring alternatives that don't shift the blame to others. We all have choices. If I couldn't walk without support, I'd choose a cane or walker far sooner than I'd ask someone else to hold my arm. Maybe it's just me, but I'd far rather depend on my own choices than impose on others.

...alternatives that don't shift blame to others?

I try to use the only bully pulpit available to me and it's to no avail. I've tried to talk to bar owners and they aren't willing to do anything about the smoking. I've tried to back proposed ordinances and lobby local politicos, but it does no good.

Of course, I don't frequent bars that much anymore.

...if people actually postulate where the well-worn phrase "step outside to have a smoke" originated.