Kicking off Saturday and taking place once a month thereafter, protesters against a recently enacted smoking ban on Boston public property will descend upon the city’s storied Boston Common as a show of defiance. A Facebook event page aptly titled Boston Common Smoke Out/Vape Up! is encouraging smokers to disobey the municipal ordinance and light up their cigs, stogies, joints and blunts in the center of one of The Hub’s most iconic landmarks.
But they shouldn’t. And neither should you.
As a former cigarette smoker and proponent of individual liberties, I find the notion that people would try to promote what’s been scientifically proven to cause cancer and a slew of other fatal diseases – redundant almost to the point of annoyance – a deeply misguided and warped view of one’s constitutional rights.
While yes, I believe to a rather liberal extent that people should be able to ingest whatever they please and degrade their bodies in the most disgusting of manners as they so choose, it seems they fail to realize the direct endangerment of those around them which should be paramount.
I very much enjoy walking through Boston Common. The amount of history and identity amassed throughout the years over its sprawling 50 acres is like nothing else in the country. Adjacent to the land is Beacon Hill, the Boston Public Gardens line another border and an eerie though lionized cemetery calls an isolated corner home. It goes without saying that Boston Common is a picture of illustrious beauty.
That beauty is lost when the pathways and greenways are littered with cigarette butts and blunt wrappers. In fact, its embarrassing to present such a grimy space to those who travel the world to view what they expect to be a place of purity and antiquity.
The last thing I want while enjoying all of these intricacies is to start jonesing. That’s what happens sometimes when I jaunt along through, soaking up all of the happenings while imagining those of yore, as I pass someone and catch a crave-inducing whiff of the nasty looking cig hanging from their lips.
Even more disheartening is seeing young parents strolling along with their little tykes having to make their way through a cloud of carcinogens when all they want to do is enjoy the natural amenities afforded by our fare city. According to the American Cancer Society, cigarette smoke “contains more than 7,000 chemical compounds. More than 250 of these chemicals are known to be harmful, and at least 69 are known to cause cancer.”
I put it to you, smoker: as you light up and take another drag of poison, is your protest really worth the harm being brought upon those dispassionate about your habit?
According to the demonstration’s Facebook page, the goal of the event is to challenge the law simply because they find it to be “unenforceable at best and selectively enforceable at worst.” Nowhere is mentioned rights, liberties or the contention of governmental overstepping. Simply, the founders of this event “are outraged to learn that there will now be a $250.00 fine for smoking outdoors in a Park in Boston.”
I have no problem with peaceful protests. In fact, I agree when Thomas Jefferson referred to general rebellion as a natural manure for the tree of liberty. But that is only true when it serves the common good. Smoking on public property is simply self-serving.
Nobody’s telling you not to smoke. Go right ahead. Enjoy systematically losing minutes off your life with every puff. Take it to the sidewalk, street corners, rooftops, wherever. But don’t subject your neighbors and community to the same demise. Have a little self-respect. Have respect for your fellow man. And keep in mind that the law is meant to have your health and best interests at heart.
