Let me say right off I am an ex-smoker. I was a a pack and a half a day smoker who knows how hard it is to quit smoking. I understand the “need” to smoke  and it was my choice and it hurt no one but me. My view on this matter has matured and at the cost of a third of my lung I know I was wrong. I now know not only the cost of smoking but also the effects on other. I understand that smoking is not safe and Secondhand smoke is NOT harmless. Maturity has a price and now it’s personal.

The fact is we do not liked to be told smoking is bad much less that it may effect others. I read the warning labels and thought it was a bunch of bull as well. My pride did not allow that I could be wrong in my  conclusion that smoking was safe. If I was still smoking, pride would not have allowed me believe in something like secondhand smoke.

My changing my my view on the subject was a process. It did not come easy so it must be with others as well. Overcoming objections by the nay-sayers, even with the body of “evdience” presented,  is daunting task. People feel they have the right to smoke, I know I did, but they do not.

Smoking, like most things, is a privilege bought at a cost and it cannot come at the expense of others health and quality of life. Not your children’s , not family , friends and enemies.  I see the effects and cost of smoking on human life almost on a daily basis. Now it has visited my world. Now it’s personal.

My mom was told yesterday she has lung cancer. My mom has never smoked a cigarette in her life. Thanks to a co-worker, who refused my mom’s and others request not to smoke in the office, she now paying for it as if she smoked herself.  Secondhand smoke can kill. At the very least my mom will suffer not just a little but a lot.

I wanted to title this post ” Thanks Elmer, you selfish bastard, for giving my mom lung cancer” but decide that against it but I am not backing down on my efforts to get people engaged in the debate on secondhand smoke . Now it’s personal.