A statewide smoking ban is headed for the governor’s desk to be signed into law that will ban smoking in most public places, including restaurants.
The bill is a compromise that should have been a stronger law. But something is better than nothing. And less smoke will make for a healthier society.
That doesn’t mean I’m satisfied, of course.
I want it all.
I want smoking banned everywhere, including veterans’ social clubs where, under the new proposed statute, club officers can vote to allow smoking.
I caution the casting of such votes, though.
Vote to allow smoking at your local VFW or American Legion and I will do everything I can to organize as many anti-smoking vets as I can find to picket your establishment and publicly challenge your lack of leadership and your sincerity about supporting our former troops.
With veterans’ health benefits becoming more and more of an issue, a vote for smoking is a vote to harm the health and welfare of men and women who served with honor and will now face an enemy attack against them on their own shores.
Voting for smoking is an act of terrorism.
And we all know how real Americans feel about domestic terrorism.
Advocating smoking in veterans’ halls is a subtle form of treason.
That’s why I’m surprised at state Sen. Bob Mellow advocating such a public policy that flies in the face of honorable public service and public health.
But that’s just what Mellow wants.
The Peckville power broker is doing no favors for veterans by advocating such a terrible exception to the rule of law.
I expect Mellow to ask for exemptions for casinos.
Slot machine power fuels Mellow’s public policy acumen.
But a slot machine mentality is really not all that smart.
I know, I know.
Making lung cancer easier is nothing personal - it’s just business. Under free market capitalism, helping to kill casino employees and customers is sound public policy.
Besides, good senator Mellow knows how to spin such an argument his way. I’m sure that Mellow is convinced that he’s helping them live, not helping them die.
Gambling is an experience of the moment, nirvana by the buffet table, an experience of a lifetime if you hit the jackpot. Just think of the excitement your relatives will have arguing over your estate if, in the adrenaline rush of winning, you drop dead from a lack of oxygen to the brain or a fatal muscle spasm of the heart caused by decades of smoking
So what if once the taxes are taken your family will be lucky to have enough cash left over to buy you a new suit for your wake.
At least your survivors will save on smokes for the wake, though. Most funeral parlors in the coal region - affectionately still called corpse houses in the best old neighborhoods - banned smoking years ago.
I remember the fog being so thick in the smoking room at Eagan’s in the Minooka section of Scranton that thick clouds drifted into the main parlor and engulfed the deceased in a gray haze of non-filter Lucky Strike, Chesterfield and Raleigh vapors.
Boy, those were the days. And, back then, we didn’t even have a couple of nearby casinos where we could go to die.
The image of veterans smoking at casinos must make Mellow feel pretty good about himself.
What a guy.
Even while he’s busy working to entertain vets and slots players, he’s also working to bring a new medical school to Scranton.
If that’s not ironic, nothing is.
Mellow doesn’t miss a trick, does he?
If smoke still gets in your eyes, it’s because hustlers like Mellow keep blowing smoke our way.
Sue Henry
