A message on smoking cessation
It can happen! Make
it so.
What would your reaction be if
someone were to give each American $2,000 a year? Imagine this
person also pays every company $5,000 each year for every fourth person
they employ. That $5,000 creates jobs by increasing our international
competitiveness. It also causes a sharp rise in take-home pay.
This very powerful person does
more than hand out money. This person hands out health: 25% of us double
the oxygen-carrying ability of our blood.
Fifty-year-olds have skin that looks 30.
Food tastes better, clothes last longer, and colors look brighter.
People are brighter, healthier, and more productive. Children, in
particular, experience a fraction of the illnesses "normal"
for them to have.
This is not a fantasy. This is
exactly what would happen if all Americans shed the costly shackles
placed on us by the drug lords who peddle tobacco. Gaining this freedom
is no easy task for the 25% of us who do smoke, but the benefits are
enormous.
For the non-smoking majority -- by
definition, those of us who are normal -- the benefits are only fair.
This is an economic decision that affects everyone. Would you
like a tax-free check paid to you every month? A cigarette-free economy
would write that check to you, about enough to pay your mortgage.
The tobacco companies murdered
over 400,000 of their best customers, last year. Yet that number
represents only the heart failure and lung cancer cases, a fraction of
the body count. Those who died weren't the only victims. Their survivors
often watched the smoker die a slow, painful, and humiliating death. The
survivors were then left to pick up the pieces and pay the bills. This
is a personal decision?
The sheer number of illnesses any
reasonable person can easily attribute to smoking is staggering. All
smokers endure an impaired capacity to function in life. Their bodies
suffer no differently from the bodies of other drug addicts. The many
cancers and circulatory problems are the tip of the iceberg. Do you like
"colds?" Do you consider "alligator" skin, baldness,
male impotence, and gum disease fun? Then smoking is for you! That does
not mean everyone around you would like to be sick, too.
There is no magic that makes a
cigarette harmless simply because you are not on the filter end of it. Passive
smoke is no different from active smoke. We have millions of
passively smoking children in this country. Do we really think so little
of them?
Be honest with yourself. Be honest
with those who smoke on you or your children. Make the better choice.
Don’t let the drug lords control you: be smoke-free. |
