Smoking (A Rant)

I grew up in a household of smoking parents. One of the many bad memories as a kid I have is cleaning ashtrays and choking for air after walking into the bathroom where one parent liked to smoke. I have three siblings and we couldn’t possibly be more different. In all those odd personalities neither I nor any of my siblings smoke. To my knowledge none even tried smoking. I never succumbed to peer-pressure. I stood strong and proud saying “no” to smoking. Nothing absolutely nothing good comes of smoking. In saying that I’ve heard people reply “Smoking calms my nerves”. I say they are dumb asses in denial. If you didn’t have a damn smoking habit, dependant on nicotine then you would never need a cigarette to calm your nerves. Smoking takes money out of your pocket and kills you lungs and endangers children. ABC’s Peter Jennings died this month of lung cancer. Mr. Jennings quit smoking in 1988. Nearly 20 years later…dead of lung cancer. I’ve seen so many people say they’ll get around to quitting smoking. Do they realize smoking changes the cell structure of the lungs? It does. The American Cancer Society has all the information. Since different people are affected in different ways a person could be a smoker for a mere two years and still screw up their lung’s cells and die an uncomfortable painful death…or be put on oxygen for their few remaining years. Did you catch that? You could quit right now and it could be too late. Your death warrant signed in black tar ink taking years (or decades) off your life. Are you going to continue and take the years off? Are you going allow your body to suffer painfully in your last few years? The more you smoke…the worse it’s going to get. Try lifting your children (or grandchildren) when you can’t even breathe. I’ve been a restaurant manager. There was this one little, sawed off punk I had to work with. He was a tiny, goofy looking, red headed that acted like a compete punk. His name was Shawn. He’d probably been picked on most of his life since most people are inconsiderate, morons without any common respect for our fellow man. He handled it all wrong and had the biggest chip on his shoulder I have ever seen in a person. Whether he was tough or a wimp I couldn’t tell you (I suspect the latter), but he wanted everyone to THINK he was a tough guy. One particular busy night, our dining room was packed. We were also catering parties and the kitchen was hopping for hours. Shawn began to have nicotine fits and asked for a break. My dedication was to my job and my customers and with calmness and respect I denied his request. Shortly afterward a second request came from him. I took a moment, while continuing to work myself, and explained that we were too busy to give anyone a break. If I gave him a break I’d have to be fair and give others a break as well. The other manager was tuned into our conversation and mentioned she could use a break too, but knew the situation didn’t necessitate it. As if on queue four other workers said the same thing (including his girlfriend). Shawn got back to work but it wasn’t long before he came back…literally begging. He looked like he was on the verge of tears. He begged I give him just one minute to step out back and light up. Here was the epitome of “Mr. Tough Guy” act, begging like a wimp-ass six year old pussy. It was thoroughly pathetic to witness and you could see the look of shame on his girlfriend’s face. I gave in because I realized he wasn’t very effective at his present state anyway, but I loved the irony to what the little man was reduced to. All his efforts his whole life to be the big and tough guy were wasted…it was laughable and sad.

Smoking is stupid and asinine. Be one of the smart ones and never start. If you smoke now be considerate of the ones who value you life and don’t shorten your life and rob them of you.

I don’t give a flying fuck what reason you have to smoke. Nothing can make me change my mind or my view of smokers. I will always view smokers as that weak, sad pathetic little person. It’s the most unattractive thing a person can do. “Smoking makes you look cool”, yeah right Shawn was really cool! That’s sarcasm in case you missed it.