There oughta be a law! We say that a lot, us Americans. Every time an irritating social situation slaps us in the face. There oughta be a law<\/i> was a popular comic strip written by Al Fagaly and Harry Shorten back in the 1950\u2019s. They took suggestions from the public on what, \u201cOughta be a law.\u201d Unfortunately, the concept of enacting laws to fix \u201ceverything\u201d became a reality and now we are buried in rules, regulations, and worse of all, political correctness that stifles our human nature at every turn.<\/p>\n
Smoking has been the focus of considerable regulation and social manipulation. But, one aspect has been omitted. Cigarette butts! \u201cThere oughta be a law,\u201d that forces the tobacco companies to make biodegradable filters. Those butts lie strewn along our roads and public areas. You can\u2019t avoid them. When our Rotary club cleans up the stretch of roadway along Route 434 near the Owego Bridge the butts (filters) make it impossible to do a good job. Old coots like me can bend over and snag an occasional empty beverage can, the wrappings from a MacDonald\u2019s lunch, a plastic jug and other debris, but trying to gather up the cigarette butts is near impossible. That many \u201cbend-overs\u201d in a short period of time has serious physical consequences. We get the big mess and sigh about the butts we\u2019re forced to leave behind.<\/p>\n
So, in violation of the old coot oath, where I promised to urge the repealing of laws and regulations, not the enactment of new ones, I now do the opposite and ask you to write your congressmen and women and beg them to regulate cigarette filters, to make them biodegradable. So they\u2019ll disappear on their own. Besides, they don\u2019t filter anything. Look what happened to the Marlboro Man. He smoked filtered Marlboros and died of lung cancer. (Actually, there were several Marlboro Men. They all died of lung cancer.)<\/p>\n
And, while you\u2019re at it (writing to your representatives in congress about the ill effects of cigarette butts on society) you might suggest they rein in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose repulsive anti-smoking ads on TV create worse pollution than the smoke they\u2019re trying to eliminate. The ads don\u2019t work anyway. I know, all us ex smokers know, that people lecturing you about the ill effects of smoking is like saying it\u2019s cold in winter. \u201cDuh,\u201d they already know that. It\u2019s just very, very, very hard to quit. The ads aren\u2019t the most obnoxious anti-smoking thing going on; the places that have a sign at their entrance that says, \u201cThis is a smoke free campus,\u201d and then treat all the passers-by to a view of smokers huddled in the cold, just off the so called campus. It\u2019s a feel good policy that has no redeeming value. Create a place to smoke \u201con campus\u201d out of the public view and help your employees to quit instead of treating them like second-class citizens. There oughta be a law!<\/p>\n
Old Coot \u201cLittle\u201d books are available at Riverow Bookshop, Owego.<\/p>\n
Comments, complaints can be left at mlessler7@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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