When considered the same as other things, it’s really very similar. Consider that it is those who pay too much attention to a conversation and too little attention to the road that have caused so many wrecks and resulted in cell phone bans in many locations. It is those who have driven drunk that result in “dry” areas, including this hole in the southeast corner of the state where I live. It is those who are violent parents who cause all of those who are not to look over their shoulder if they ever spank their child.

Life is full of restrictions that have resulted from the inconsiderate, rude, and just pure hostile actions of others. Sadly, that is now, and will always be, the case.

I will agree with stadiums being nonsmoking, I must say. The proximity there is too close. You don’t know if you are sitting right next to someone with emphysema, and your smoke could harm them. Sadly it’s not really possible to equate for everyone else you may encounter, so therefore it’s always best, I believe, to err on the side of caution and avoid taking the chance with someone who happens to cross your path or who (as is the case with stadiums and similar venues) have no choice but to be close to you.

Common courtesy goes a long way….sadly, it seems to be in short supply.

I have hated to be around cigarettes ever since I was a kid. Both my parents smoked, and I can still remember riding in the car, with the two of them joyfully puffing away, and feeling like I was suffocating. Back then (1950’s), Mom and Dad and everyone else thought that cigarette smoke was just a normal part of the atmosphere. As an adult I suffered for years from a mysterious “chronic sinusitis” (nothing debilitating, just annoying) which magically cleared up when my office went smoke-free in the late 1980’s.

Politically, I think that the fight for “smokers’ rights” is lost for good. Although I’m glad about that, I’m not without sympathy for people who need to smoke but can’t find anyplace that allows it. I’m just a person who likes fresh air, not an anti-smoking zealot, but there are certainly zealots out there who want to crowd out smoking to the point of silliness. But I admit that I start to ally myself with the zealots when I encounter (the large number of) inconsiderate smokers who act as if they have a constitutional right to blow smoke in my face.

If you agree that inconsiderate smokers are causing problems for all smokers, it is this non-smoker’s advice that educating smokers about “smoking courtesy” would be more productive than continuing the lost battle for “smokers rights.”

Relative to our conversation in the comments to another of your posts, I agree that the guy who empties his ashtray in the road where I walk undoubtedly throws his beer cans and McDonald’s bags out the window too. But when he empties his ashtray in the road, he says to the world, “I’m not just an ordinary pig - I’m a SMOKING pig.”

As my drill instructor used to say - “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.” But police up those butts!

Odds are the person that dumps an ashtray in the street or road is just as prone to toss other trash from their vehicle window, including trash from fast-food merchants and just about anything else that comes their way.

There is no excuse for or excusing lazy people, smokers or not, that trash the countryside.

You do make a valid point regarding sitting next to a person smoking in a crowed outdoor public facility, such as the stadium at OU. The option to get up and move simply may not exist and in such a scenario smokers should refrain from lighting up.

And you make a very valid point about inconsiderate smokers spoiling things for other smokers. To a large degree many of the limitations and outright smoking bans we see today are the result of the backlash against inconsiderate smokers.

A guy sitting on a park bench by himself ought to be allowed to smoke all he wants. Of course he shouldn’t just flip his butts on the ground afterward.

I don’t know what to think about the zoo. Is the smoking person off by himself watching the polar bear lying around, or is he holding his cigarette in the face of a six-year-old while both are watching the seals play?

There is always a cluster of people smoking at the entrance to an office building. When I enter or exit, I hold my breath for as long as I can while I walk through the cloud. Do you think they might stand a bit farther from the door?

I would hate sitting next to a smoker at a football game, especially if I was downwind. (Someone always is.) I would move to another seat, but there aren’t any empty seats at OU football games.

Unfortunately, inconsiderate smokers are spoiling things for other smokers. I wish I could say that it’s just a few, but actually - it isn’t.

One more thing - would you have a talk with the guy who empties his car ashtray in the middle of the road where I walk my dog? Disgusting! It just isn’t politically correct to do that!