It is one thing to be kicked out of restaurants, bars, arenas, and offices if you want to grab a smoke, but now there are people who want to take away your right to smoke in your own apartment because the smell might get through the walls? I’m all for being a courteous neighbor. I don’t play my music too loud, I don’t have wild parties, I try to keep the volume on my television down at night, but if I wanted to be told what I could and could not do in my own home I would get married. People will say that it is an issue of common courtesy that if something you are doing offends someone you should try to minimize it, and I agree. I’m not suggesting lighting up a cigar and blowing smoke rings in the face of your neighbor, but when do we as smokers get shown some common courtesy of our own? Non-smokers have kicked us out of just about every public venue in this country and left us cowering in packs on the sidewalk during the winter, dodging the elements. Now they’d like to kick us out of our homes too? Additionally, there are state and county officials who have proposed laws forbidding people to smoke in their own cars.

Common courtesy is a good thing, and we should all practice it. We should use phrases like excuse me, please, thank you, and you’re welcome; we should hold elevator doors open; stay off our cell phones in restaurants and movie theaters; and all that other good stuff, but why is no common courtesy extended towards smokers? Are they doing something illegal? Was tobacco outlawed while I was sleeping? I don’t mind ordinances that keep smoke out of public facilities, but don’t tell me what to do in my home, and I won’t tell you what to do in yours.

C.C.S.