Re: Smoking Section.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TOP PREDATOR</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i'm all for personal rights and freedoms, as long as whatever someone practices to do doesn't effect the the personal rights and freedoms of others.</div></div>
I agree with that completely. This is my deal: I don't smoke, and I'm not allergic to it. I am sensitive to a lot of scent agents, however, and this includes colognes/perfumes/chemicals... It's not something I can help if I'm here at work and someone walks by me having bathed in their perfume that morning - I start literally choking and trying to breathe. It's not like drowning, it's more like the feeling of getting hit in the face with foam off a good wave while trying to breathe in. Same with the bathrooms here - if the guy cleans with certain chemicals, I can't be in the bathroom because I can't breathe. It's not an allergy - I'm a sensitive guy
I don't think it's fair that I can't go into a grocery store without having cigarette smoke blasted into my face by their lazy ass employees on break smoking right next to the door. If I want to "boycott" this store and go somewhere that doesn't let people do that, I'm gonna drive 35 minutes every time I have to run to the store. I don't think that's fair either. I can't have the windows down on my car on spring days because someone in the car next to me has their cigarette hanging out the window like some tar-filled incense stick.
<span style="font-style: italic">I</span> feel like I have <span style="font-style: italic">my</span> rights violated because I can't f***ing breathe when I get a faceful of smoke, cologne, chemicals, or even fabric softener for Pete's sake. It's speaking out of both sides of your mouth when you say, "If you don't like smoke in public, stay home." How can you say that when, "If smoking in public makes people physically ill, stay home," is equally true? Why is it within people's rights to affect other people with something they may not tolerate or want in their bodies?
Conversely, how far is too far? Do you ban colognes in the workplace? Fifteen inch subwoofers with 2000 watt amps behind them are noise pollution to me. Do you make those illegal? Where does it stop? I can't stand "big government," but I'm also not allowed to go old-school and tell someone that they make me sick when they walk into my office smelling like Lysol-coated funeral home flowers. They get offended and I'm in the wrong. It seems like a no-win battle from all sides.
On topic, I don't see why it's perfectly accepted in public to knowingly distribute cancer-causing chemicals to anyone that happens to be walking by at the moment. Corporations get fined for doing that sort of thing, why is it alright for citizens to do it? Oh well, have at me. /soapbox