Seeing Through The Smoke

Special Contributor Lloyd Garver Pleads For Compassion For A Downtrodden, Often Overlooked Minority

(CBS)  We see them almost every day. They're outside in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. We usually avoid talking to them. We rarely make eye contact. They are often either by themselves or huddled in clumps in front of office buildings or restaurants. They're hard to avoid in most downtown areas throughout the country. If we sneak a peek at them, they often look ashamed, so we look away and keep walking. Rarely do we even say "hello" to them. Isn't it time we stopped treating them like this? They are somebody's sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Let's show some compassion and stop treating them as pariahs — just because they smoke.

Smokers have become today's lepers, and it just doesn't seem fair.

Let me state my attitude about smoking right here. I hate it. I hate breathing somebody else's smoke, and I really hate smelling smoke on my clothes. I'm happy that so many places are smoke-free today. I'm thrilled that I don't have to worry about somebody smoking a cigar at the next table in a restaurant or lighting up at a business meeting. I'm appalled by what "Big Tobacco" has been able to get away with. And I hate that actors and other "role models" smoke in their photographed "private" lives and on the screen.

Many of you share these feelings. Too many of us have lost loved ones because of smoking. We are dumbfounded that people still smoke despite the undisputed medical facts about it.

But just because we hate smoking doesn't mean we have to hate smokers. We've all learned over the past few decades that alcoholism and other addictions are diseases. Research has shown that compassion and treatment should be involved with people who suffer from these diseases. An addiction to smoking is a disease, too, so where's the compassion for smokers?

Can you imagine treating people who had any other disease the way we treat smokers? We don't force people with high blood pressure to only hang out with other people with hypertension in front of office buildings. We don't look at people with high cholesterol with the same disdain we have for smokers. We don't abstain from smiling at people with ingrown toenails.

It's not the smoker's fault that smoking exists. So why aren't we picketing the tobacco companies' offices instead of turning our backs on smokers? Why aren't we boycotting movie studios that show smoking in a positive light instead of walking past smokers as if they don't exist? Why aren't we campaigning against politicians who keep helping the tobacco industry instead of feeling superior to those who smoke?

It's because smokers make a more visible target. We don't see tobacco executives, politicians, or movie moguls every day. So we take out our anger, outrage, and disgust on smokers. Some of us view those who smoke as though something is wrong with them as people. I can't be the only one who has met somebody, liked them, and then become surprised to find out that anyone so intelligent and nice could be a smoker.

It's time for these unfair attitudes to change. I'm going to try to treat smokers differently. When I see them outside of a building, puffing away, I'm going to say, "hello." Or at least, I'll nod my head in a friendly smile. I'm going to try to be less judgmental of people who smoke and I encourage you to do the same — no matter how bad their smoke smells.

Again, we don't treat people with other addictions this way. Our society has come to view those with all kinds of addictions as people with a problem, not as bad people. There are people addicted to shopping, to pornography, to the Internet, to eating, and to gambling, and we don't shun them.

Suppose you were on your way to work, and there was the usual clump of people outside your building. But instead of smokers, what if they were sex addicts? I guarantee you people wouldn't try to ignore them. Everybody would stop and say "hello" — among other things. Many people would be so interested in meeting the sex addicts that they probably wouldn't even make it into the building to work. Shouldn't we have the same compassion for those who can't "just say no" to cigarettes as we have for those who can't "just say no" to anybody?

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Lloyd Garver has written for many television shows, ranging from "Sesame Street" to "Family Ties" to "Frasier." He has also read many books, some of them written by smokers.

[toolmangler-2009]

I smoked about 3/4 pack a day for nearly 60 years of my life, You know what is killing me? cirrhosis and I never drank even beer. I have quit smoking now and the liver is somewhat stable right now. Life comes at you fast, friend. Don't look back, it might be gaining on you. You concentrate on what you 'should' do, 'Not' what I shouldn't do.

[jimfinster]

kaiyo4u:

Why do you smoke? Do you want to quit?

[kaiyo4u]

actornaught: So who are you? Mussolini, Stalin, or Hussein?
No right to smoke, if you level the playing field, you have no right to use your computer either, or drive for that matter... I don't throw butts out the window, I can't stand people who do, littering is littering, no matter how you cut it. Do you throw those McDonalds wrappers out the window when you are done with them...? I also smoke outside and field strip the butt the insure the fire source is out... I used to live where the laws were if you were found guilty of starting a forest fire negligently you were charged for all the board feet of timber that was lost in that fire...Makes you a lot more careful when playing with fire....You know what happens when you make generalizations... It's like when you assume... You should spell check with Word before you post...

[actornaught]

"It is a civil liberty issue... It is my right to smoke if I wish and I don't want any other to dispute my right."

No matter how much slack you cut smokers, they will ALWAYS abuse what privilages they're given. So they're losing them.

I'm starting to see that littering laws are being enforced at $100 a pop for tossing butts out of a car window. Good.

You have NO 'right' to smoke. Period.

But you're half correct, it's everyone's right to clean air, and that's the way things are going, thank God. If you have problems with the inevitable, well, get some counseling or something.

[tcoleman12]

What if these groups were to say that certain books were bad for children because they reference homosexuality? Or a guy should be kicked off the radio because he said a stupid comment about some girls?

Thing is, these things happen and people flip out because of the wrong reason. The book is fine unless it becomes required reading for students. But this group was Christians....Oooohhhh!

The "radio guy" probably would have lost his job anyway after losing the rest of his audience once he got back to work. But the station caved to these pressure groups.

[kaiyo4u]

tcoleman12, I'm with you. It is a civil liberty issue... Why don't we make laws concerning what you can and can't wear in public? It is my right to smoke if I wish and I don't want any other to dispute my right.
It's really funny that these people leave out the folks who started smoking at 9 and 10 years old and lived to be 90+... It's called manipulating the facts... period.
It should be up to the establishment owner as to whether they will allow smoking or not. The government should keep their noses out of this as they are violating property owners rights...
It would seem that we should start a class action suit against each and every level of government for their irresponsibility in this issue and fine them heavily with the proceeds going to the owners who lost revenue as a result of the government's actions...

[tcoleman12]

This isn't a smoking or a health issue, it is a liberties issue. These hard-line groups that feel they know better than you how everyone should live their lives goes around having laws passed banning smoking in restaurants & bars.

Let the market place dictate whether people want to eat in a smoke-free environment(which many do). You don't have to force everyone to go that route.

Next thing you know they are going to start telling you what you can/can't have on the menu...oh, they already are. No Trans-Fats in NYC!!!

[susanhelit]

It's not because we hate smokers, it's not because they stink. It's not because we dislike them as addicts.

It's because breathing their smoke hurts us! Illnesses, difficulty breathing, lung cancer, etc. That's the difference between them and a high blood pressure patient - no matter how many deep fried twinkies that person unwisely eats, no matter how high the pressure, it won't impact my own health. Being around cigarette smoke will.

[actornaught]

By YOU, i'm sure you mean the 80% of americans that aren't addicted to tobacco.

But it sounds more like you really don't much care about law&order after all.

[lawandorder6]

actornaught, The only thing wrong is YOU. I really don't care how you think. What I said is true and youe kids have a lot more to worry about tham smoke, one is YOU.