Hendersonville now restricts smoking to certain areas of its park system. As we all know, the smoke stays within the lines, too. But then, is it fair to make nonsmoking taxpayers pay to have all the cigarette butts picked up? Last weekend, the beloved enfant terrible I babysit wanted to sit in the wash of water following a downpour. Since I’m not going to whoop her, she sat down in the gully wash, and cigarette butts galore washed over her. Do smokers have a right to clutter externalities? I recall an obese person advocating government controlling smoking but not obesity saying he does not blow pats of butter in smoker’s faces. Then, there is that certain somebody I know (not me) who sat on a smoker’s table in a restaurant and passed gas as what he considered a fair exchange of air pollution.
by Leslee Kulba
Wild West blogger