Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Fayetteville Keep free choice alive
I do not have a personal interest in the smoke-free Fayetteville debate. I am not a restaurant owner or regular smoker. When at a restaurant, when asked where I would like to be seated I have no preference, I choose the least crowded area. My interest is in our ever-diminishing freedoms.
They have banned smoking from every mall, grocery store, hospital, school and airline, places that you have to be. I am all for that, No one's rights should be infringed. There are also numerous restaurants that are non-smoking. If you feel that strongly about the dangers of secondhand smoke choose a nonsmoking restaurant or one with an outside deck. You make your choices and let the restaurant proprietor make his. Unfair? What’s unfair is the impact this will have on these businesses which are mostly locally owned. California has this law in effect, While I was visiting I noticed on a Saturday night, masses of people huddled together outside smoking. Inside were no lines to the bar, few people dancing, and bartenders and waitress doing almost nothing. People were outside smoking instead of spending money. The next night we went to Mexico to go out. Fayetteville's economy will suffer and it will affect us all. Customers will take their cigarettes and their money elsewhere. So to all of you smoke-freeers, you choose where to eat, with your strong beliefs in mind, and let the restaurant proprietor choose what is best for his business that he and many others depend on to survive.
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