“Causing any damage or harm to one party in order to help another party is not justice... (it would be as if) I attacked fire, a very good and necessary element... because some people burnt themselves, or water because someone drowned...the same can be said of all good things which can be used well or used badly. But one must not attack them if fools abuse them.” Christine de Pazin
“Don't raise your voice, improve your argument." Desmond Tutu
I need to give a persuasive speech so I can finish the last general ed course to graduate next May. The persuasive speech topic I have choosen: why my community college should have smoke free campuses. That's it. Is it really that controversial a topic??
Smokies, it's your right. God love you. Just like it's my right to eat heart clogging waffle fry nachos from Granite City, it's your right to smoke that disgusting thing. However, I will add a wrinkle. When I ingest unhealthy food - it only affects me, it doesn't affect you. There are no secondhand consequences that cause immediate harm to you and your environment because I ate french fries, not like there are for your smoking a cigarette here in the place we both mutually have to exist in at this moment. They're not the same thing.
Can we say the word addict? Can we talk about addiction? Can we talk about what these companies put in their products so they keep you coming back for them so they can cruise around on 150 ft yacht instead of on a 30 ft one? I want to talk about that cigarette in your hand that you lit. Own it for Christ sakes, you lit it. Not me. Not God. Not Jesus. Not Obama. Not the mayor of Rockford. You. That's what interests me. What's really sad, it interests me more than it interests you. You'll live to be 90 and I'll drop dead at 40. Go figure.
The most ridiculous argument EVER - "I'm not going to stop doing this thing that I know is bad because there are other bad things out there." Really? That's all you got? That's your argument? Than why do anything? Why work? Why buy your nephews Christmas gifts? Why pay your taxes? Why get haircuts and do your laundry? Why go on at all? Where does your blase attitude start and where does it end? Existentialism is not a life that offers much in the way of life options without hypocrisy surrounding one like a funky smelling mist.
OK then. I'm going to encourage every pregnant woman to drink vodka every day, after all the worlds a tough place fetal alcohol syndrome or not, right? Or I'll start a petition to rid the world of traffic lights because we all have to go sometime, so why not in a ball of blazing fire and twisted metal?
Bullshit. We all live and enjoy the lives we do because of rules. Some rules we like more than others but we all at one time or another depend on them, call upon them, use them for our benefit. We make choices and they make ripples that affect other peoples lives. We are not islands unto ourselves. I don't have all the answers, but I do know that in the end we are the sum of choices made by us and by others. It matters. It does. So go, do what you will - enjoy your vices approved and otherwise - I will grieve I will rejoice I will lament - but I wont ever toss it your face and when the time comes I wont refuse to show mercy when its needed because in the end its all any of us ever really have.
There is something to be said for individual freedom. We cannot legislate everything. It's exhausting to a community and repressive to citizens. We're smart. Let us figure it out
ReplyDeleteFirst, just let me say like a total geek, how excited I am to have someone actually comment on what I wrote. lol Wow. Flabbergasted here, this is so sudden after years of blogging, I only thought a couple of my friends ever read this thing.
ReplyDeleteOk, sorry, my geeky-gushing is done.
As for your comment, I do hear what you are saying about how legislation can create more problems than it solves. My specific issue is with the college I attend and their smoking policy. I have all these thoughts mixed up in my head - the colleges many medical related programs, the higher cost smoking creates in health care costs which tuition and taxes helps pay for, my mom’s battle against cancer, and people I love who smoke which frankly I just don’t like - these are interconnected in my mind fairly or unfairly. I just don't think it makes sense that smoking zones are located all over our campus, lining the space between entrances and student parking. I guess what I am appealing to is John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle, which holds that “the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals.” I, the government, and legislation can’t and shouldn’t stop anyone from smoking altogether, but when bystanders can be harmed I do believe action is necessary.
Thank you for the thoughts! :)