2008 Woodie Awards
Letters to the Editor: Feb. 12
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: Opinion
Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to Senator Edward Kennedy's endorsement of Senator Barack Obama.
Until today, I was a strong admirer of the Kennedy family. However, this latest act by Edward Kennedy has completely changed my mind.
It really amazes me that these two limousine liberals can put ego above party at the expense of bringing back the "rising tide to float all boats."
Harry Truman once questioned John Kennedy's youth and inexperience, but yet it was far more than what Obama brings to the table today.
The late senator Lloyd Bensten is probably turning in his grave with the comparisons between Obama and JFK.
Talk about hypocrisy; you never see any African Americans in those Kennedy home movies on Hyannis Port.
Perhaps it's because the closest they were allowed to come was to pick up the trash at the end of the driveway.
Joe Bialek
Cleveland
Dear Editor,
Last year, a law banning smoking in public places across Ohio was activated. This was a vote by the people, yet now that it haspassed, some smokers feel they have been wronged. They feel the ban should have exceptions. Among the exceptions, they feel that bars should be able to choose whether or not to be smoking facilities.
A chief argument is that making smoking illegal makes innocent people into criminals. To that I can only say that murder being illegal also makes innocent people into criminals. The point is that if something is illegal, and you do it, you can't blame the laws when you get in trouble.
The smoking ban was put up for a reason. Secondhand smoke contains many known toxins and carcinogens such as formaldehyde, arsenic and hydrogen cyanide, and was itself designated a known carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
There's no problem with smoking in and of itself. You should have the right to that choice. But as soon as you start smoking in public, you are robbing others of that choice. By purposely making the choice of poisoning innocent bystanders, you are displaying the kind of mentality that resulted in the necessity for the smoking ban in the first place.
Furthermore, to argue for the right to do so is completely ridiculous and irresponsible.
Now back to the point about bars being smoking facilities. This is an absurd proposition. A bar is a public place, so it's only obvious that smoking should be banned there, too. It doesn't matter whether bars contain a high concentration of smokers or not. As long as there is the possibility of one nonsmoker, be they employee, customer or otherwise, there should not be smoke.
Andrew Caldwell
Sophomore
This letter is in response to Senator Edward Kennedy's endorsement of Senator Barack Obama.
Until today, I was a strong admirer of the Kennedy family. However, this latest act by Edward Kennedy has completely changed my mind.
It really amazes me that these two limousine liberals can put ego above party at the expense of bringing back the "rising tide to float all boats."
Harry Truman once questioned John Kennedy's youth and inexperience, but yet it was far more than what Obama brings to the table today.
The late senator Lloyd Bensten is probably turning in his grave with the comparisons between Obama and JFK.
Talk about hypocrisy; you never see any African Americans in those Kennedy home movies on Hyannis Port.
Perhaps it's because the closest they were allowed to come was to pick up the trash at the end of the driveway.
Joe Bialek
Cleveland
Dear Editor,
Last year, a law banning smoking in public places across Ohio was activated. This was a vote by the people, yet now that it haspassed, some smokers feel they have been wronged. They feel the ban should have exceptions. Among the exceptions, they feel that bars should be able to choose whether or not to be smoking facilities.
A chief argument is that making smoking illegal makes innocent people into criminals. To that I can only say that murder being illegal also makes innocent people into criminals. The point is that if something is illegal, and you do it, you can't blame the laws when you get in trouble.
The smoking ban was put up for a reason. Secondhand smoke contains many known toxins and carcinogens such as formaldehyde, arsenic and hydrogen cyanide, and was itself designated a known carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
There's no problem with smoking in and of itself. You should have the right to that choice. But as soon as you start smoking in public, you are robbing others of that choice. By purposely making the choice of poisoning innocent bystanders, you are displaying the kind of mentality that resulted in the necessity for the smoking ban in the first place.
Furthermore, to argue for the right to do so is completely ridiculous and irresponsible.
Now back to the point about bars being smoking facilities. This is an absurd proposition. A bar is a public place, so it's only obvious that smoking should be banned there, too. It doesn't matter whether bars contain a high concentration of smokers or not. As long as there is the possibility of one nonsmoker, be they employee, customer or otherwise, there should not be smoke.
Andrew Caldwell
Sophomore
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