Great Hoosier Smoke-out

Well, since Hoosiers rank pretty high on the charts for smoking........across age brackets.......I thought it would be good to do an entry prior to the "Great American Smokeout" tomorrow. I have to admit here, I just don't get the allure in the first place-but I do get how one could get hooked. I'll also admit here that while most of the pics I put with my stories are my originals-occasionally I go looking online-the images "smokers" came up with were too disturbing to include-and maybe that would've been good.?

I remember once pulling into a service station so my roommate/good friend in college could buy a pack of smokes (his parents were from Great Britain-so I'm thankful he didn't call them 'fags'). We pulled away and he was starting to get a cig out of the packet and said, "geesh, I wish I could quit". I asked if I could see the pack-he handed it to me and I promptly threw it out the window. Wow-you should've seen the expression on his face.

Now, I'm not necessarily advocating for government bans; however, as a society we are becoming more conscious of the health risks of second hand smoke. It would seem that some level of protection from second hand smoke is overdue. Our county was presented information by some well meaning individuals (who were portrayed as Nazi doctors by local loud-mouth hotheads) about a year ago, asking for a county ban. Rather than take the high road, our county commissioners first threw the responsibility on the state-and then one county commissioner actually had the gall to say that to pass the ban "would be like spittin' in the face of our veterans who fought for our right to smoke". How absolutely astonishing an elected official would trivialize the sacrifices of our veterans. My grandfather served his country in WWII and he died from heart disease attributed to smoking and my grandmother from lung cancer attributed to second hand smoke. I think if grandad could come back-he'd tell the commissioners to wise up and pass some kind of a ban.