Over the years I have become more tolerant of some things and less tolerant of others. One activity which I have become almost completely intolerant to is smoking. I went to visit my homie Ian this weekend and Saturday night we went with a group of friends to this mexican restaurant in the trendy new power & light district. The place apparently transitions into a ‘club’ of sorts as the night progresses, so towards the end of our stay there it was more people drinking and dancing with some music and a cocky guy with a microphone occasionally yelling at people and trying to act cool.
At one point the cocky guy with the microphone yelled out to the crowd “hey whoever is smoking in here, put that $#!% outtt!”. I then learned from Ian that smoking was illegal in restaurants, bars, etc in Kansas City. Which makes it just one of the many cities around me that have embraced the idea that smoking indoors is complete obnoxious as well as a substantial health hazard to customers and especially employees. So KC, Springfield, Fayetteville, and probably countless others have all gone smoke-free and I have heard little to nothing about such an idea in Joplin. Not to say that nothing good happens here, but for once I wish Joplin would be a city that is setting a good trend, rather than resisting one.
I saw a story on the news the other night about a no-smoking proposal in Carthage, and pretty much everyone they interviewed was opposed to the idea, even ones who don’t smoke (???). Not even because they want to smoke, but because they feel it’s their right to smoke or because they don’t want the city to “tell them how to run their business”.
To me, smoking in a restaurant is like farting next to someone who is eating – except the fumes from cigarettes not only smell toxic, they actually ARE toxic.
So it is interesting you posted this and I hadn’t got the chance to read it until now. The KC smoke-free thing I actually helped work on and get passed, which was pretty major for us.
As well as Kirksville, Columbia, and soon to be Rolla and possibly Jeff City.
I was at the Carthage event and helped them to table the process because as it was, it would not have passed. Plus the policy itself was full of holes and lacked comprehensive coverage. I have also just written a quarter million dollar grant that if passed in March (fingers crossed) will go into effect in May and finally give this area some funding and employees to do some education and grass roots building.
I always need people to back the cause, so if you really are interested there is definately a use for you. Plus, I was thinking it would be cool to shoot some actual quality PSA’s and eventually commercials and maybe you could help me get some good ideas and set those up.
Absolutely! I don’t know if you know or not but I setup a pretty basic website for Breathe Easy of SW Missouri several years ago.