With Smoke Free Advocates Like These, Who Needs Second Hand Smoke?
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been relatively quiet about the new smoking ban proposal making it’s way through the Indianapolis City-County Council. Part of the reason has been taking care of the Lovely Mrs. Shabazz who was injured a month or so ago in a car accident, she is recovering slowly and painfully, but surely, by the way. But I also wanted to keep my powder dry and cigar unlit until I saw what the final version looked like. And I really didn’t have anything different to say about this ban that I hadn’t in the past.
However, there is one thing that I did notice that was worth mentioning. The Mayor’s staff has indicated he will likely sign this proposal, but for all intent and purposes, this is pretty much the same proposal that the Council had a chance to pass in December of last year, but pigheadedness by individuals like Angela Mansfield and Brian Mahern would not accept reality and didn’t take the deal they were offered. In December they were offered a deal that would ban smoking in most bars and taverns and exempt private clubs. Now fast forward nearly six months and a Mayoral veto later, and all these guys are doing is about to send the Mayor the exact same measure, off-track betting facilities notwithstanding, one that bans smoking in most bars and taverns and exempts private clubs.
I find it rather ironic that the smoke-free crowd which moaned and gnashed its teeth about workers in bars and taverns whose lives are put at risk by exposure to second hand smoke have in a sort of round about way been responsible for exposing those same people to those dangerous carcinogens for the past six months since they didn’t take the deal they were offered. Mahern told the media that while this may be a victory for the Mayor, it’s a loss for children. Someone needs to tell Mahern, if he can stop listening to the sound of his own voice for a few minutes, that he is the one who kept hundreds of bar workers at risk because he wouldn’t take the deal in December that he seems to embrace now in April. And he could be considered almost as big a threat to public health as the second hand smoke he allowed workers to be exposed to. Okay that line may be a bit over the top. He may not be as dangerous as second hand smoke, but the stuff that comes out of his mouth is at least as annoying.
For the record, I still philosophically oppose a government ban on smoking in bars. I think that decision is best left up to the owners and patrons. I do think it will hurt some very small neighborhood mom and pop type places who will end up on the short end of the “there is no net loss in business” statement. So I am sure once they are forced to finally go non-smoking the anti-smoking crowd is going to patronize those establishments so they can stay open and those servers and bartenders that they have been trying to protect will still have a livelihood. But then again, these are also the same people who by their own intransigent behavior put those same workers lives at unnecessary risk for the past five months because they wouldn’t take the deal in December that they so willingly embrace today.
