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This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
You know it's true, just go ahead and admit it: You hate smokers
By Kevin Fischer
Saturday, Jun 28 2008, 03:58 PM
Last September, I blogged that we must admit, as a society, we truly despise smokers:A so-called “sin” tax, the cigarette tax is one that even those who hate tax increases can go along with if push comes to shove.
Why? Because people not only hate smoking, they hate smokers. A downtrodden lot in society, smokers have become pariahs, outcasts, a group to look down your noses at.
David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times wrote that smokers are, “generally much poorer than average Americans and much less educated. High school dropouts smoke at roughly three times the rates of college graduates. They are also among the most demoralized people in society. Recent sociological research shows that most Americans regard smoking as a sign of low-class, unattractive behavior — and most smokers see it this way, too. Research by Kip Viscusi of Harvard suggests that smokers actually overestimate the dangers of their habit; they believe they are killing themselves even faster than they really are.”
Harvard’s Viscusi contends smokers actually save taxpayers money. They tend to die earlier than nonsmokers, they do not consume as much health care in old age or draw on Social Security as much as nonsmokers do. In 1997, the New England Journal of Medicine conducted a study that determined that total health care spending would go up, not down, if everyone stopped smoking.
Society doesn’t care. They’re just nasty, evil, dirty smokers. Stick it to ‘em. And boy, have we.
Since 1994, the average cigarette tax (state and federal combined) has tripled, rising from 50 cents to $1.46, an increase of more than 100 percent in real terms. Because smokers tend to die earlier than nonsmokers, they do not consume as much health care in old age or draw on Social Security as much as nonsmokers do. Leaving aside Social Security savings, a 1997 study in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that total health care spending would go up, not down, if everyone stopped smoking.
Earlier this week, another blogger, Ryan Evans, who opposes a statewide smoking ban in Wisconsin, wrote a letter to the Journal/Sentinel on this very topic:
SMOKING
Hatred is allowed
Where is the outrage?
I don't get it. I am a nonsmoker but apparently am a rare minority among my peers. What I don't understand is why treating smokers as if they are less than human is acceptable.
Since getting involved in tobacco issues, I have never seen such irrational hatred and abuse as I have seen directed toward smokers. People aren't any better than they were 50 years ago; they just have directed their intolerance elsewhere.
The attitudes and words I have witnessed would never be tolerated if the word "smoker" were replaced with "black" or "woman" or "gay." If people made such utterances, they would be drummed out of town before they knew what hit them; yet when a smoker is the target, even ordinarily mild-mannered people turn into venomous monsters.
Where is this coming from? Are people to be so vilified for their personal choices? Aren't we all afforded the right to do our own thing? Yet smokers aren't even treated like human beings these days. It bothers me that discrimination, intolerance and hatred is still alive and well. It's simply redirected toward a target who people just don't like.
Ryan Evans
President, Ban the Ban Wisconsin
St. Croix Falls
Evans' letter got some response from people who more or less conceded their disgust (hate?) for smokers and rationalized their view in letters that appeared in today's Journal/Sentinel:
SMOKING
Tolerant no more
Concerning Ryan Evans' June 23 letter "Hatred is allowed" about smokers:
May I remind him how smokers have treated non-smokers for years? After lighting up, taking that first deep draw, then blowing it out into the vicinity of my nose, they would sometimes - no, rarely - state, not ask, "you don't mind if I smoke, do you?"
Evans stated that anti-smoker statements wouldn't be tolerated if the words "black, woman or gay" were substituted. Substitute the word "man," since I'm a female; I have no objection to any of these people standing next to me, as long as I'm not forced to take their smoke into my lungs.
If smokers choose to ruin their own health, that's their business. But don't you dare try to ruin mine! I don't look for confrontations, but I refuse to back down if challenged. I sat by quietly for almost 50 years breathing air polluted by the "habit." Now, I no longer have to. Yay for our side.
Joan Lapp
Franklin
Smoking is a choice
I would like to clear up why it is acceptable to express negative attitudes toward smokers but not toward racial groups, genders or sexual orientations. Smoking is not an uncontrollable birth characteristic, like race or gender. Choosing to smoke is a decision, and it's a stupid one. The health detriments of smoking have been known for generations, yet people continue to smoke.
Not only is smoking incredibly unhealthy for the smoker, but secondhand smoke makes the habit dangerous to those around them. A person's race or gender does not give people around them lung cancer.
In addition, cigarettes left unattended can cause disastrous fires, resulting in property damage and loss of life. A person's skin color or gender or sexual orientation cannot start fires.
Cigarette smokers are among the least considerate people I've encountered. At work, they feel entitled to take numerous breaks to get their "fix." My windshield has been hit countless times with cigarette butts flicked from speeding cars. Sidewalks, roadways and building entrances all are covered in the things. Throw a candy wrapper on the ground, and it's littering.
Smokers need to stop whining. If they need to get their "fix," they're welcome to put their face to my car's tailpipe and inhale. It's a lot more potent and gets the job done quicker.
James Lynch
Muskego
Nice.
So go ahead.
These two letter writers did.
Some of you know out there know it’s true.
It’s not just the smoke.
You hate smokers, too.
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