Nature class, we have to do
this big group project where
we do something environmentally
positive for the college
or community.
So the professor calls on
each group, and the group
leader tells them what our
project is. He gets to the
group two rows behind mine
and asks them what their
project is. “We’re going to try
and make Bucks a smoke-free
campus,” she said.
Why? Why is everyone so
against smoking? What have
we ever done to you?
I don’t understand how
anyone could think that making
the campus smoke-free is
a good idea, or that it would
actually work. Do they really
think that smokers are going
to walk all the way back to
their cars to smoke, then walk
all the way back to their
class?
Explain to me how you’re
supposed to walk to and from
the parking lot, stopping to
smoke a cigarette, with smokers’
lungs none the less, in the
10-minute break given to students
who have three plus
hour classes. It’s completely
illogical.
So, what grounds do these
anti-smoking advocates have
for trying to make the campus
smoke-free?
“Smoking is bad for you.”
Know what, you’re right, it is
bad for me. And that sounds
an awful lot like my problem,
not yours. “Well, smoking
causes cancer.”
In this day and age what
doesn’t cause cancer?
“Well I hate walking
through the smokers around
the doorways.” Well I hate
people in my classes that
have no idea what they are
talking about, yet they babble
on week after week, so why
don’t we make the campus
moron-free? Because I tolerate
it, just like you should.
“Well the second-hand
smoke I inhale could kill me.”
You’re right, in 20 years or so
it could kill you, but there is a
bunch of stuff that could kill
you anywhere between now
and then, so go attack one of
those things. And unless you
inhale a ton of second-hand
smoke, I doubt it will do anything
to you. And if you do
inhale a ton of second-hand
smoke, why exactly are you
following around the smokers
so much?
“People throw their butts
all over the place, it makes
the campus look dirty.” So
does the garbage and graffiti,
so why don’t we try and get
security to enforce a littering
law, or put more of those ashtrays
around. “Oh well smoking
makes your breath smell
bad and your teeth turn yellow.”
Again, that sounds like
my problem, not yours.
All this anti-smoking talk is
just a few people trying to
protect their own interests,
that’s all. They may say that
they’re looking out for everyone
else but they’re not. If
they were looking out for
other people, why are they
making smokers stand out in
the freezing cold and rain to
smoke? Most of the overhangs
are well within that
anti-smoking yellow tape.
And why are they trying to
make us late to class by making
the only place we’re
allowed to smoke the parking
lot, a half a mile away from
the closest building? I think
they are selfish, and I doubt
they will change their ways,
just like I won’t change mine.
As odd as it sounds, smokers
need to band together to
meet this threat to our way of
life head-on, otherwise these
people are going to get things
their way, regardless of who
it affects.