Gathering Places
Gathering Places
Smokers must keep
what little dignity
they still haveI am a smoker. I make this claim publicly because I have the right to do so. However, no longer do I have the right to choose the restaurants I wish to patronize because the Honolulu City Council says so. As of July 1, the smoking ban became effective for restaurant bars.
I choose not to dine out if I can help it because I refuse to be treated like a second-class citizen in the 21st century, forced either to stand outside to smoke or pay a fine.
Actually, I could bear eating at a non-smoking restaurant because I could smoke at the bar or go outside, but I no longer have a choice. No smoking at a restaurant bar? Now, that is the ultimate slap in the face.
Twenty years ago, smokers had more rights. We could smoke in banks, offices, beauty salons, stores and even in schools. Yet, as the years went by, those privileges were gradually rescinded. I didn't grumble because we still had the right to smoke at bars and restaurants. Now, however, our rights have gone out the door.
Council members say the ban is necessary because of health reasons, but whose health are they worried about? The customers? Well, customers can choose not to frequent a restaurant or bar that allows smoking. Why force the restaurants to change? Oh, OK, the smoking ban is meant to protect the health of the restaurant and bar workers.
But have surveys been conducted to find out how many restaurant employees smoke? Can't they choose not to work in a business that allows smoking? Oh, OK, it's back to concerns about customers' health.
If it's the health of customers, the restaurants still have a right to serve greasy burgers and fries or heavy cream over crispy herbed opakapaka. Isn't that unhealthy? Should we ban them, too?
Hmm, this ruminating makes me think about the multimillion-dollar award the state received from the lawsuit settlement with the tobacco industry. Did the state use that money to pass out those expensive nicotine patches? Was it used to reduce the cost of the medication I was taking to stop smoking? Was it used to help establish a rehabilitation center for smokers like those for drug and alcoholic addicts?
Maybe it's a moral issue with Council members. But I don't think so, not when their conduct is in question for holding weddings in a non-business-zoned area, or using campaign donations for personal needs, or for leaving the scene of an accident.
I tried to quit smoking, but when July 1 came around I was in a state of rebellion and stopped taking the medication. As a remnant of the flower-child generation, rebellion against government imposition still stirs in me.
So I've stopped the medication to protest the ordinance that bars me from smoking in any restaurant bar. I have my principles. I choose to maintain some sense of dignity. It is probably the only right I have left as a smoker.
Maybe I'll retire to Europe where they treat smokers and non-smokers equally and leave my money in their economy.
Linda Ginoza lives in Waipahu.