Editor, Times-Union: I want to thank our state legislators for voting for Right to Work. I see it as an important part of a person’s freedom, to be able to choose what groups they want to belong to and pay money to. This is not a pro-union or anti-union thing. It is about freedom.
On the other hand, I am disappointed in some of the Republicans in the statehouse for supporting (no they did worse, they actually proposed) a smoking ban in Indiana. I see this as another freedom issue. By the way, I do not smoke and my employer would not get more customers if they allowed smoking in the building.
However, it is important that business owners are the only ones who decide if smoking will be allowed in their business. The business owner will decide for himself what he believes his customers want. Then the customers will exercise their freedom to vote with their feet.
By business owners, I do not mean just bars. I mean any business.
This idea of a smoking ban is offensive to someone who believes in American Exceptionalism. To me, American Exceptionalism is that America is a land of freedom. If someone wants to live with the tyranny of the government (whether the government is a king or the majority of the people), there is a place that has this tyranny. It is called Europe. Those who yearn for slavery, can go back to the place their ancestors left. They can go back to Europe.
In America, people should be free. My freedom stops at your nose. The business owner who allows smoking is not hitting people in the nose. The smoking customer in his business is not hitting anyone in the nose. The non-smoking customer (people like me) can choose to go to another establishment.
If we succumb to the idea that a smoking ban is not too bad, because most people (myself included) prefer not to smell smoke, we are allowing the tyranny of the majority to take away the freedom of the minority. This is no small problem. If the majority can take away the minorities’ freedom, we are all at the mercy of the tyrannical majority who take away one group’s freedom and then another group’s freedom.
When you are free to do anything the majority would choose to do, you are a slave of the majority. You are not free.
This past week, the Obama administration did a similar thing that Indiana is contemplating. When Obama figured most people are not Catholic (I am not) and most people believe in contraception (I do) that he could infringe on Catholic organization’s religious freedom, he was wrong on principle. Smoking is not a religious freedom issue, but it is a freedom issue.
When it comes to the Indiana smoking ban and Obama’s war on Catholics ... all freedom loving Hoosiers are smokers and all freedom-loving Americans are Catholic.
