Smoking Ban Is Misguided Fascism

This letter to the editor from a New Mexico newspaper is interesting because it comes from a non-smoker. There are plenty of non-smokers, just like him, who want to see smoking bans lifted or revised to be made fair, which would allow individual business owners to decide if their establishment should allow smoking or not.

We still know second-hand smoke is not harmful, and does not cause cancer (based on the recent World Health Organization study), but I would be willing to concede that if a business owner did not want me to smoke in their restaurant or bar, then I would not. Conversely, everyone must agree that if a bar owner decides to make his pub allow smoking, than we must all respect his policy, and indeed his rights in a free society.


Letter to the Editor:

By John M. Jewett, Socorro
special to Mountain Mail

SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- This is my second letter to the editor regarding the smoking ban and will contain a few excerpts from my previous letter.

I would again like to make it clear that this smoking ban does not affect me at all. Nonetheless, what does affect me and many others is the method of legislation that was employed in passing this law.

I am a World War II veteran and I take exception to this law. I find it hard to believe that any small group of lawmakers in this country today can have the power to enact a law that so severely controls the masses without referendum.

It is my feeling that this smoking ban was passed by a wimpy legislature that bowed to a dictatorial governor with no regard for the U.S. constitution and without input from the constituency. This in turn destroyed our freedom of choice. Our lawmakers have now enacted a stringent and oppressive law where one size fits all, except for private clubs, which is government control of business and industry. This is the definition of fascism. Fascism is, of course, one of the foundations of any dictatorship.

It should always be remembered that ever since the birth of our nation, wars were fought and paid for in blood to preserve our American democratic way of life and all of its freedoms.

I find this current policy of legislation in New Mexico to be scary, with a potentially dangerous trend for the future. The present subject of controversy, as everyone knows, is the smoking ban, but it could be any number of other subjects. If this new policy is allowed to prevail, we the people could be faced with more undesirable, regulatory laws that further the loss of freedom.

I am certain that this smoking ban was necessary when applied to public buildings; however private enterprise of any kind should not come into the picture. Owners of private businesses should be allowed to make their own decisions concerning smoking.

I am thoroughly convinced that a smoking ban law could be enacted that would be reasonably palatable for everyone. In essence, this recently-enacted smoking ban could be and should be revised to meet all of the people’s needs and not just for any one select group, and bring back our freedom of choice.