Chris Ward, candidate for Lawrence Twp Constable, recently had a letter to the editor published in the Indianapolis Star
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100726/OPINION01/7260305/1031/More-smoke-ban-talk-even-when-current-pact-works
Posted: July 26, 2010
Smoke Free Indy, along with an auxiliary group, Tobacco Free Kids, is once again pushing for a comprehensive smoking ban in Marion County. The usual motive is employee rights and patron rights. I work as a bartender in Marion County, and Smoke Free Indy has never asked me about what I think. They seem to think that I'm bound to work in a smoky bar. I am not. It is my choice to work in such an environment. The same goes with my patrons, a majority of whom smoke. These are the people whom Smoke Free Indy is trying to protect; yet Smoke Free Indy is not asking the employees and patrons their opinions. They claim to be advocating on our behalf, as if we are not intelligent enough to make our own decisions.
The reason we have the current compromise of smoking and non-smoking establishments is to give people an option. Those who don't want to be around smoking can go to nonsmoking, all-ages establishments. Those that want to light up go to an adults-only bar.
Even the market is adjusting as there are nonsmoking bars that have opened in Indianapolis since the compromise was enacted. This goes to show people are voting with their feet and wallets. Bar owners are mostly independent mom-and-pop establishments -- the small businesses that politicians like to point out are the core of our economy. Further restricting the abilities of bar owners would only further cripple our already fragile economy. Smoking bans elsewhere in Indiana have closed more than 100 bars, putting employees and owners on the already swollen unemployment rolls, along with removing the ability of responsible adults to make their own decisions. Modern smoking bans serve only to allow a bullying majority to impose their will on a less-vocal minority who just want to be left alone.
Chris Ward
Lawrence
