Keller on NYC Anti-Smoking Ordinances
Bill Keller surprises me with a good column on Bloomberg’s efforts to outlaw smoking bars. As an later in life asthmatic, I find the argument that smoking is a liberty a bit hard to take. It is a choice that infringes on my ability to breath well. And thus I see fewer bands–and that is bad. Smoking is a choice that is fine as long as other’s choices don’t affect me. I may have the choice to avoid a bar, but why should I have to because other people can’t cope with their addiction?
I smoke occasionally in my favorite bar as do most of the other patrons. I am not the least bit addicted and have no interest in smoking anywhere else. I come to the bar to smoke. That is what bars are for. Smoking in bars is an innocent pleasure I allow myself to enhance the experience of friends and music. Why should the aesthetic preferences of certain people diminish my liberty. They don’t like smoke but I do. Why should their wants trump mine on private property? This sort of prissy intolerance is more dangerous to society than a little smoke in a bar.