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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-11-20, Page 5By Raymond Canon International Scene THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1996 PAGE 5. Getting killed still legal Smoking is, as far as I'm concerned, the entire point of being an adult. The American humourist Fran Leibowitz wrote that thought about a decade ago. I doubt that she would write it today — if only because non-smokers would immediately burn her at the stake. On second thought: naw. 'Way too much air pollution. They'd probably just crucify her. There was a time, not so very long ago, when lighting up a butt was considered attractive, even sexy. Bogey and Bacall, Crawford and Coward — everybody who was anybody smoked: We smoked in airplanes and buses; in doctor's waiting rooms and restaurants. Nobody asked if they could smoke when they came to your house. Of course they could smoke. That's why you had ash trays all over the place. Well, no more. Smoking is definitely and officially no longer glamourous. U.S. President Clinton has officially denounced it. Our own Prime Minister, (while gleefully continuing to pocket the tax money charged on each pack of cigarettes) has publicly allowed that "hit's a bad 'abit'." The exchange of ideas With foreign travel at an all-time high and virtually total freedom in the communications field, it is truly remarkable how ideas spread from one country to another. It is as if this spread was as inevitable as the coming and going of the tide and, while we may modify an idea as it crosses our border, it is fundamentally the same concept. Those of us who grew up during and immediately after World War II were the first ones to feel the effects of the Keynesian revolution. It was the ideas of the British economist John Maynard Keynes who taught that governments could play a bigger role in the fortunes of a country and that, if we did not have the money, we could borrow it. In this fashion came the birth of the use of deficit financing and, if Keynes pointed out that the money borrowed should be paid back at the peak of the next business cycle, we were too busy borrowing to worry about the paying back. Along with that came the vow of my generation that our families would not have to suffer as people did during the Great Depression. This caused governments to gradually introduce social welfare programs on a scale never before envisaged and, if not adequate attention was given to the long- term funding of such programs, there was always the above-mentioned deficit financing to tide one over.- Small wonder that the 60s and 70s were the halcyon days of western Europe and North America. We had relatively low rates Joe Camel, a cartoon character invented by the makers of Camel cigarettes, has turned out to be just about the worst idea a Madison Avenue hack ever had. "Uncle Joe" has become a lightning rod for the American Anti-Smoking Movement — a symbol of everything they detest and deplore. As a half-page ad in a recent edition of New York Times asked, "After all who should tell kids about tobacco? Their parents...or Uncle Joe?" We live in smoker-hostile times. Anybody addicted to the weed will find him or herself segregated in restaurants, ostracized at social gatherings and frowned upon the instant they flick their Bic. The building I work in has been declared a smoke-fret zone. Nicotine junkies have to hie themselves off to a depressing little 'smoking room' on the second floor. Others stand around in clumps on the sidewalk, puffing, coughing, and avoiding the eyes of pink-lunged, self-righteous colleagues. It could be worse. Last month 6,000 employees of Motorola's two plants in Illinois, received a memo informing them that they risk being fired if caught smoking on Motorola property — and that includes in their own cars while in the company parking lot. There's a town in California where it's illegal to smoke anywhere outdoors. So how do I feel about the escalating of unemployment and high levels of positive government intervention. To paraphrase the French writer Voltaire, everything wks for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Keynes, who had long since gone to the grave, would not have been amused. Theie was always the question how the enormous debt, which was piling up, was going to be paid back, not to mention whether the social welfare programs could continue to be funded. Governments, however, assured us that the matter was both under consideration and under control. Along with this social democratic philosophy went a greater level of attention being placed on the individual. His or her rights became the partner of the welfare state and responsibility became a neglected word. We bent over backward to make sure that the individual's rights were protected even if the result at times bordered on anarchy. Special interest groups sprang up everywhere, only to clash with other groups whose demands for a place in the sun conflicted with those demanding the same place. Groups became allies for a specific cause only to break down in acrimony when priorities changed. Invariably the reaction set in. It became apparent to economists that we could no longer afford the fiscal burden inherent with a generous welfare system. Governments, always timid when it came to offending voters, were reluctant to tell the truth and the charade of the free lunch continued. This ambivalence could only last so long and what a shock it was when there was widespread realization that our lunch was not what had been advertised. Ontario has had its days of protest, France has Smoker's War? Ambivalent, actually. I've been on both sides of this particular No Man's Land. I kicked a 25-year habit, stayed clean for five years then strayed again. As I write, I haven't smoked for three months, but I don't kid myself. I know I'm only one puff away from being a two-pack-a-day man. I know that smoking is a grubby, expensive, debilitating and thoroughly addictive habit. I also know that non- smokers can be, you'll pardon the pun, a pain in the butt. Aside from kids naive enough to be conned by the likes of Joe Camel, I don't know a single smoker who's happy about being addicted to nicotine. Most smokers could stand a little sympathy and compassion. What they don't need is some snooty, Holier-than-thou zealot preaching at them. Cut them some slack, folks. They're smokers, not lepers. And if you're really feeling generous, spare a kind thought for John Taylor. He smoked his last cigarette in the snow outside a public building in Utah last January. When he finished his cigarette, John Taylor walked inside the public building, which happened to be the Utah State Prison Execution Shed. John Taylor was then shot to death by a Utah firing squad. The State of Utah forbids smoking inside any public building. Getting killed is still perfectly legal. experienced weeks of riots. Even Germany, that most wealthy of European nations, now faces the fact that it cannot afford both the cost of reunification and the weight of the most generous welfare perks in the western world. In the midst of all this agonizing comes the second industrial revolution, this time not one of mass production but of communications. Jobs disappear and are slower to be replaced by new ones. Add to that the dramatic effects of trade liberalization and workers can be excused for wondering where all that stability went and if it is ever going to come back again. All in all a gloomy picture, you might say. Well, yes and no! Perhaps over the past 50 years we have been pampered a bit too much too fast. Being given social welfare benefits that could not be sustained and wage increases that could not be justified out of productivity gains has to have a day of reckoning. We have been led to believe for so long that governments will look after us that we have lost the feeling of self-reliance and responsibility. If the present social and economic turmoil is to teach us anything, it is that there must always be a place in our lives for such qualities if we are to survive. It was, after all, the great British historian Arnold Toynbee, who pointed out that any civilization that failed to respond to challenges when confronted with them, was doomed to be relegated to the scrap-heap of history. If we can get our self-reliance, sense of responsibility and entrepreneurship in working order, we have a far better chance of avoiding being just another example of the decline and fall of a once vibrant society. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Ignoring not an option This week is National Drug Awareness Week. Activities and programs are being hosted throughout the area by various organizations to educate parents and kids about drugs, choices and the consequences of decisions. Huron Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre noted that education is the best prevention. Yet it also indicates that young people's misguided view of their own mortality, their weakness to peer pressure, their struggle to make independent decisions and curiosity may at times, be too strong an opponent. The greatest influence a parent can have is to be a good example, yet even that may only work in retrospect. Mary Gregg, a counsellor with HAARC said that while most teens will veer from their parents' values, they will adopt them eventually — if they survive their teens. Well, that just breaks my heart. The very things that make us love young people, their spontaniety, their energy, their passion, are the very things that make it difficult to protect them. As Gregg said surviving the teen years is difficult, especially when they put themselves in dangerous situations. In most cases, drug and alcohol abuse among young people is not extreme. These experimenters are unlikely to find themselves hooked. But a mind-altering substance impairs judgement. Recently, I encountered two drunk young women, returning from a party. One had been the trusting passenger, the other the designated driver. The former believed her friend to be sober. Her friend clearly wasn't. And this is only one example. There have been stories of date rape or people abandoned in unfamiliar surroundings among strangers. They are stoned and vulnerable. Just trying something once is no guarantee. People should be aware that all drugs have risks. For some it can begin the first time you take them. Kids want to be cool. They want to have fun. They have their whole life ahead of them. They know it's dangerous, but they play the odds. One factor they may not consider, however, is that while they may appear to get away with it early, there could be consequences to face later on. When you fill your body with poison the past may come back to haunt you. There are enough things in this life to regret over which we have no control. While the future is always too far off for kids to consider, it is a tragedy that the fun they have today might have repercussions when they're ready to grow up. I focus on the aspect of teen drug and alcohol abuse, certainly not because I believe adults above it, but the younger the mind the more impressionable. If they can be discouraged early, or at the least can be stalled, the likelihood that it will become a serious problem lessens. Identifying there is a concern at any age is the first step. Dealing with it is the next. Ignoring it is not an option. Any parents who do have concerns about themselves or their children should contact HAARC at 482-1767 Arthur Black