Audrey Silk's Speech At The Rally - 26 August 2002

Let's call Bloomberg's plot what it really is - The SMOKER-Free City Act.

Many nonsmokers, different from the anti-smokers, are behind us because
they recognize these extremist measures for what they really are - An
attack on freedom by our own government and where it could lead next.

Anti-smokers are waging a civil war against their fellow citizens.  The
anti-smoker crusaders publicly spew their hate of an industry to disguise
what has turned into their attack on fellow folk.

We are NOT the tobacco industry.  We are 30% of NYC residents.  This is
persecution by government against a segment of society freely choosing to
engage in legal behavior and the bar and restaurant owners who want to
serve us.

This political action has nothing to do with protecting the health of
others.  Dismissing high-tech ventilation as a solution and banning smoking
outdoors in a vehicle exhaust filled city proves it's about getting rid of
the smokers, not the smoke.

Further proof is the most recent news that Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester
Counties have met with our city leaders to implement a wide-spread ban.
Our elected officials have colluded against one third of the people.  To
protect others??  NO!  So that smokers will not have any refuge and will
stop smoking out of frustration.  This is evidenced by Nassau County
Legislator Corbin's statement:

"If you're downstate you're not going to be able to smoke anywhere but in
your closet.  If we stop the places in which you can smoke, the smokers may
not find it appealing to smoke."

How dare they use their power to impose their personal biases on others and
legislate behavior that is legal. 

Our founding fathers assured us we will never get this kind of brutal
coercive government.  Their vision is under siege.  Abuse of power is
threatening ALL of us.

When the anti-smokers ask where in the Constitution it says we have the
"right" to smoke, ask them where the rights they're claiming are
enumerated.  They're not.  They insist the Constitution was written in
their favor.  It's not.  ALL the people have the right to pursue happiness
and that's about as much as they can claim ownership to when referring to
the Constitution, as do we.

The anti-smokers call us selfish.  WE are not the ones asking that the
entire city accommodate ONLY us.  They want it 100% their way when there is
room for compromise.  Who are the selfish ones?

The anti-smokers use the adage "your right to swing your fist ends where my
nose begins."  Saying that, in their defense to end smoking in bars, is
like saying that to end fighting in a boxing ring.  Stay out of places
where you know "fists are being swung" and you won't get hit.  Any child
understands that. 

The owners and the owners only, of PRIVATE establishments, must be allowed
to decide for themselves how best to serve their customers - whether to
allow or ban smoking.  And employees and customers can use common sense in
whether to enter one or the other.

To turn a phrase:  The right to be intolerant ends where our civil
liberties begin.

That includes junk science about smoke from my cigarette and exploiting
workers and individuals who haven't asked for help to promote their
self-righteous, sanctimonious and puritanical cleansing of smokers from
this great city.

We must resist the extremists.

Thomas Jefferson said this:  "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred
principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail,
that the will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess
their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be
oppression."

Millions who have wanted to, have stopped smoking without government
intrusion.  Millions more freely choose to continue.  The choice to use a
legal product is normal.  Tyranny in America is the aberration.

This is civil war.