Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | DeKalb County's Oldest Newspaper

Letters for February 21, 2009 Non-smoker believes city council had no business in smoking issue Let me state for the record that I am not a smoker. I’ve lost family members to lung cancer. I consider smokers to be drug addicts, many of whom are inconsiderate at best if not downright rude. Having said that, I’d like to congratulate our city council on throwing another little piece of our freedom in the trash. I didn’t realize that our local restaurants needed their playing fields leveled. Maybe the council should pass an ordinance requiring all restaurants in the city to serve the same food items and keep the same business hours, that way no restaurant has an unfair advantage over another. In reality, restaurants are different from each other in many ways, it’s called free market competition. If you don’t like the smell of cigarettes choose a restaurant where the owner has decided on his own to make his establishment smoke-free. If enough people make this choice, other restaurants will follow suit, many already have. I remember when grocery stores had ash trays at the end of the aisles. Do you think the reason people can’t smoke in grocery stores now is because our city council said they can’t? The reason people can’t smoke in grocery stores is because grocery store owners figured out that people don’t want to shop in a place that smells like a pool hall. Simple solution, no government force required. It seems to me that when you hear a politician say he just leveled a playing field for someone, someone else just lost some freedom or some money. To my knowledge nobody in our city is forced to work somewhere they don’t want to, and we surly aren’t forced to eat somewhere we don’t want to. As a business owner, I’m angered to watch five guys who aren’t invested in a particular business, tell the person that is how he has to run it. With all the licenses, taxes and other hurdles business owners have to overcome just to stay in business the last thing we need is more government regulation. Our constitution grants us certain inalienable rights, the right to eat in a smoke-free restaurant is not one of them. Lee Carson, Fort Payne President should allow the people’s representatives to do their jobs President Obama promised during his campaign to have historic “openness and transparency.” He said he would post every bill that reaches his desk on-line for five days for the public to read it. Sounds terrific doesn’t it. There’s just one problem. The public doesn’t get to vote on these bills. The most effect we can have on legislation is through the making of phone calls or writing of letters to our senators and congressmen. In fact, there may be more than one problem with his unprecedented openness. Another is that I, like most Americans, don’t want to read the stupid bills the politicians try to crush us with but even if I did, I don’t have the time. It’s my guess that this is one of many reasons that our founding fathers thought it might be a good idea for Americans to have representatives. It goes something like this: Americans go to the polls to vote every couple of years. We elect people to send to Washington D.C. that will represent our states and districts. They read bills. They vote yes or no. Meanwhile, we raise our families, go to work, and try to hold our representatives accountable. That is how it should work. The president, however, believes it isn’t important for our representatives to read the bills. He demanded passage of the stimulus bill without even 24 hours of study because of the looming “catastrophe.” Never mind the fact that he had no intention of signing the thing for four more days. What good does it do for me to read every ridiculous law passed? I can’t change it or vote on it. That is the responsibility of those whom all of us hired to that job. Let them do it. Jared Winkles, Sylvania Back to top Share | Save | Mail | Print Write a letter Submit your letter online for The Times-Journal opinion page. Letters to the Editor January 28 January 26 January 23 January 22 January 21 January 20 January 19 January 15 January 13 January 9 Services Letters: Send your thoughts to The Times-Journal. Extra: Get weekday updates of headlines and breaking news. Subscribe: Have the newspaper delivered to your door or mailbox.

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