Smoking is a personal freedom, not to be controlled

I very much agree with your column from Jan. 16. I have never smoked (beyond sampling it) but, unlike the militant anti-smoker, I am tolerant of people who smoke.

Insofar as I’m concerned, the militant anythings are simply control freaks trying to control other people’s behavior—and they want to use the power of government to do that, witness Red Oak’s recent ordinance you wrote about. Right now it’s smoking. They’ve also managed to do away with trans-fatty acids in foods. They’re working on shutting down the fast food industry by making the food neither fast nor palatable. In New York they’ve outlawed large servings of soda pop. They’ve banned soda pop, potato chips and candy from vending machines in most schools. Some want to place a heavy ‘junk food’ tax on candy, salty snacks and soft drinks. Of course, they do these things “for our own good” never mind what we want; it’s a freedom thing and that’s beyond these folks’ understanding.

The following two paragraphs are excerpted from a letter I wrote to the Omaha World Herald (and they printed it on Jan. 7):

“Government thrives on crisis. Its propaganda, by exaggerating the true extent of social and economic problems, fertilizes the soil of public opinion. In time, it reaps a harvest of broad new powers. Frightened, confused citizens are susceptible to government requests and give up their rights and incomes in exchange for the state’s promise to ‘do something’ about the crisis” Bennett & DiLorenzo, “Official Lies,” 1992, Groom Books, page 265).

The list of crises and potential crises is endless. The results of these perceived crises are things like the “Patriot” Act, Obamacare and the current push for abolition of privately owned firearms (which is the only “reasonable regulation” of firearms that the gun controllers will accept).

If second-hand smoke were as lethal as anti-smokers claim, I’d be dead. Both of my parents smoked like forest fires from the age of 18 until they died (mom at 55-not of any smoking related problem and dad at 81-of pneumonia) and I grew up in a house full of cigarette smoke; further, in my early years of the Air Force nearly everyone else smoked heavily and quite often, particularly when promotions were announced, the cigarette smoke in the office was so thick no one could easily see from one end of the room to the other. While my (late) brother did take up the habit, neither I, nor my sister did. As I noted, it’s a freedom thing.

Bob Ackley is a resident of Emerson.