Mike Dedwylder is a junior majoring in architecture. He can be contacted at [email protected].Starkville, being the incredibly forward-thinking city that it is, has decided to make the public smoking ban permanent, and more than that, everyone is so proud that this horribly dirty vice is finally being locked away where no one has to suffer its maladies ever again.
Forget about increasing security around campus so people don’t have to worry about being raped. Forget about using the ample grant that MDOT gave us to establish a public transportation route. And forget about where all that money is going (note Starkville’s obsession with signage).
We have more important things to worry about; someone is smoking a cigarette while I’m trying to enjoy my dinner.
Normally, I wouldn’t care one way or the other. Personally, I enjoy stepping outside to grab a quick smoke, but forcing people under penalty of law to do something against their will just because it makes you uncomfortable is fascism.
This may seem rather extreme, but liberty is about being able to make choices, and once those choices are taken away by a governing body, things start to go haywire. This seems like a bit of overkill for a situation that could have been resolved much easier, without using any government funding whatsoever.
For instance, if smoking were confined to the bar areas only, the problem would be solved. Sure, someone would complain about how smoky it was last night while trying to enjoy an appletini, but he was aware of the situation going in.
In another scenario, the restaurant owners themselves could have simply asked patrons not to smoke inside – problem solved. Sure, people would complain about having to step outside, but they knew going into the restaurant that they would have to do so. Both of these ideas would have saved money and left the decision up to the people that it affects the most – the restaurant owners.
I know that retroactively criticizing things is easy, and anyone can sit on the sidelines and pick policies apart. The fact remains, however, that this is a growing trend in America.
When a government is deciding whether or not to censor musical lyrics (i.e. the current rap fiasco), it’s time to re-evaluate. Have we as a society descended so far that we are no longer able to make decisions for ourselves?
What’s worse is that when these things happen, everyone just shrugs it off as if nothing ever happened, as though they are happy to be limited. I might be reaching a little far, but the question becomes, why? Why are individual rights being challenged? Why are we fighting so hard to regulate such a simple principle, when it’s as easy as living with each other?