As a casual smoker, I am a bit disturbed by the views expressed by those involved with UF's anti-smoking "task force," who claim that their long-term (or not-so-long-term) goal is to make smoking prohibited across campus.
These radicals' proposal is presumably founded on the idea that "one's right to punch ends where another's nose begins."
This reasoning clearly applied in the early days of smoking policy reform, when non-smokers had to sit in close quarters with smokers in restaurants and workplaces, and more recently, when smokers were still able to smoke near building entrances.
Smokers are now forced to walk 50 feet to enjoy a cigarette, a policy that the affected few have not complained about.
Activists are now suggesting that smoking be banned campuswide, as if the mere sight of a smoker enjoying his day was just too much for them to bear. Using the same reasoning as these individuals, I ask: At what point does one's right to avoid seeing a cigarette being smoked impinge on a smoker's right to consume a legally purchased, government-taxed good?
We understand you don't want to smoke cigarettes - or smell them or hear about them - but give us a break; we are in the free world, after all.
On an unrelated note, I stepped on a piece of gum last week. When will these pesky gum chewers stop destroying our community?
