Namaste.

A few years ago, I devised a plan to help people decide what they thought about the smoke/non-smoking issue. How about, in those areas that allow it, a group of people get together and go into a building that allows smoking and light up as many cigarettes as they can, puff them and create a HUGE cloud of smoke, and if someone complains, tell them that they are making the point of "It's my right to smoke if I want to. If you don't like, help make it a law to ban smoking in public."

Because of one of my professions, I spend a lot of time in bars. I used to smoke 2 packs a day, but quit in '89. After living in California for a year ('97) I went back to Ohio. While sitting in a restaurant, I was choking on smoke from a neighboring table, so I nicely asked the gentleman if he would mind extinguishing his cigarette. By his reaction, one might've thought I had asked him to surrender to the Taliban! Talk about getting angry! By God, it was his RIGHT to smoke where ever he gol'darn pleased! So, that gave me the idea of taking a carton of smokes and puffing like crazy right where he was, and if the managment said anything, well, it's our right to be able to smoke indoors, isn't it? Where is the law that says how much we can smoke?

I never followed through with the idea because I can't be around smoke for any length of time anymore. My lungs were damaged by smoking, which made them vulnerable to Sarcoidosis, which served to damage them further. But I recommend this action for those who are able to do it, it will press the point home. I have heard that a frog, put into boiling water, will jump out immediately, but put into cold water which is then heating to boiling will cook to death. I don't know if this is true, but I can see how humans are guilty of this in many areas. Let's make the water boil a little and see if some change can be made.

Om shanti.