Letter: Smokers are blinded by their deadly addiction

Editor,

John Bear has a lot of nerve. His name-calling and threats against those of us working for a smoke-free campus prove how intensely his addiction controls him. Judging by the 200-signature - and rising - petition for a smoke-free campus, with names of students, staff and faculty, we nonsmokers are a tightly-wound group as well, but not the terrorist faction Bear accuses us of being.

We came together with a common concern for the health of UNM's patrons and began fighting for a better campus.

I would like a chance to respond to some of the recurring arguments people have had against a smoke-free campus.

First, I sincerely wish smokers would stop being so selfish. We are not trying to make you quit your dirty habit - there are numerous smoking cessation programs available at your reach. We're not even trying to persecute you as a specific group of people. Contrary to rumors written by people like Bear, we are trying to protect the lungs of the nonsmokers here on campus. This includes faculty, staff, students and visitors, which includes many children's groups. It also includes those fighting to quit who need not be tempted by others during their daily UNM routine. We are the majority, and we are suffering in the clouds of your smoke.

Please stop making this an issue of smokers' rights. Your right to smoke does not supersede everyone else's right for healthy air. Just as we cannot pour our waste into the Rio Grande - though it might be convenient - smokers should not exhale cancer-causing agents into everyone's air. The fight for smoker's rights is simply a cover-up for a truly disturbing addiction.

Smokers are blinded by it, and don't see the simple truth in front of them - smoking kills. Firsthand and secondhand smoke causes cancer and a wealth of other horrid diseases. Do you really want to defend this? Do you really want to fight for Big Tobacco?

And for those who argue that there are much worse toxins than tobacco smoke, please take a step back to look at the big picture. No one person or even group can solve all of our society's problems, but why should we give up trying to improve one part of it solely because there are other issues? We must start somewhere with an issue that is relevant for us, and that is what the smoke-free campus committee has done.

I commend and support other coalitions working to make cars burn cleaner or factory work more environmentally friendly, but there is no reason to not fight for this improvement of our campus when we truly have a chance to succeed.

I will not threaten smokers as we nonsmokers have been threatened. I will not sink to calling you names or bombing the convenience store where you buy your cigarettes. I will fight you with facts and logic.

Whether you can ever look past your addiction to see that logic is in your hands.

Nathaniel Schneider

UNM student