I'll take a pass on your toast

I would like to respond to Mary Maryland's "Anniversary toast for a smoke-free state."

Enjoy your toast while you can.

Alcohol kills tens of thousands of people per year. So we better put a ban on alcohol too. That's OK, we can toast with grape juice. Oh, wait, grape juice has sugar, we better put a ban on that too. At least we can eat something after our toast.

Oh no. Those delicious snacks have trans fats, we better ban those too.

Well Mary, maybe in a couple years we can ring in the New Year with a cup of water and some crackers.

While I prefer not smelling like an ashtray after a night out, it's the principal behind the ban that I hate. If I wanted to smoke a cigar, and a bar owner wanted to allow me to smoke it, and the workers wanted to work there, and the patrons wanted to be there.

Please tell me what is wrong with that? In your eyes I just described something evil and illegal. In my eyes I described a free country where people can choose for themselves what kind of business they want to go spend their money at, and choose what they want to do with their own bodies. Would it be so bad to have one bar I could go have a cigar and a beer?

I'll take a pass on your toast.

I don't like big brother's nanny state.

Carl Ostenson

Des Plaines