The neo-prohibitionists say secondhand smoke kills 53,000 people a year, which is very debatable, but let's accept it for now.

In 1988, the Surgeon General reported that of the 2.1 million Americans who died the previous year, nearly 1.5 million succumbed to diseases associated with diet.. "These disorders now account for more than two-thirds of all deaths in the United States." Surgeon General Everett Koop later stated on national television that diet kills an estimated one million Americans each year and costs society three times more than smoking does.

In addition to the million killed by their diets, 190,000 die from cancer attributable to carcinogens naturally present in food. 120,000 die from alcohol related illnesses. Another 45,000 get wiped out on the roads. Total: 1,355,000. In other words, driving to a restaurant and having wine with dinner is 450 times as dangerous as inhaling any smoke present at the time.

A risk as insignificant as environmental tobacco smoker, even using the currently accepted figures, compared to the routine risk of living does not constitute grounds for turning a quarter of the adult population into pariahs. It is certainly no justification for a total smoking ban when the freedom to choose smoking or non-smoking establishments provides equal treatment for all.

Instead of jumping on the "ban-wagon" of in-your-face political correctness, have a closer look at this truly evil trend:

* Employees have been fired for smoking in their own homes.

* Smokers have been denied custody of their own children.

* Smokers must suffer a TV hate campaign funded by their own tax money.

In a supposedly free country, this hysteria makes no sense. Something else is at work here, something far older than the debate on smoking. Blacks and Jews should recognize it instantly. Some people, it seems, just aren't happy without someone to hate. Before you give in to hate, before you create a new kind of apartheid, say to yourselves: "Wait! This is America! We don't do that kind of thing to people here!"

 Thank you.