Where are YOUR rights headed?

Before seeing the next paragraph and saying to yourself “I don’t smoke this doesn’t pertain to me”. Stop, take a minute, read it and realize IT DOES PERTAIN TO YOU!! If you live in the United States and enjoy freedom’s such as ‘Freedom of Speech’, it pertains to you.

Tobacco Companies are finally standing up for their 1st amendment rights. Freedom of speech. To be able to put what they want on Cigarette package labels, at the very least to NOT put on labels what they have been ordered to by the FDA. In June these new labels were announced to be put on Cigarette packs. Nine were approved for use, pictures of lungs, one perfect and clean, one diseased. a picture of a dead person. A picture of rotted teeth. A picture of a person that has a hole in their neck with smoke coming out etc.

Is this in any way shape or form fair? Fair at all? Tobacco companies lost the BIG fight long ago in the courts. The Courts awarding millions of dollars to families of diseased family members due to lung cancer. The Tobacco companies are forced to pay for ads that run on television, speaking out against smoking. The Tobacco companies have been ordered to pay for smoking cessation ads etc.

We've known for a long time that smoking is bad for us. Not one person in America can say they haven't been warned. On every package there is a label stating smoking is dangerous, can cause lung cancer, can lead to heart disease, cause low birth weight etc. This has been on these labels for years. How much more do these companies have to pay? Some will say ‘Not enough’ the others who aren't sure, read on.

The taxes alone, the Government both State and Federal assess on each pack is astronomical. Which of course is passed on to the consumer. Is this stopping people from smoking? Some have quit. Some struggle to quit. Some don't. Some are stubborn and refuse to give it up, only because they are being forced to. I am one of the stubborn ones. If they would have left it alone, I might have quit years ago. In fact it was my intention to do so, for my own health. Then the Government stepped in and decided to TELL me what to do, for my own good. You can suggest all day long, but when you start to tell me what to do, my hackles raise and I get stubborn.

This is what I have to say:

Smoking is bad for me, yep I know it. There are warning labels on the package. I have read them for years. Will I quit? Maybe, but when I do it will be on my terms, not because someone has told me I have to.

McDonalds is bad for me, so does that mean they are going to insist that pictures of fat people be put on the packaging to the 'bad for you' foods? Same goes for Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell etc. I can see it now, all those folks who weigh well over 500 lbs lining up to have their picture taken with grease dripping down their shirt! Just to be stuck right on the side of that bucket of fried chicken.

Soda pop is bad for your teeth, as most dentists will agree. The acid erodes the enamel on the teeth, causing tooth decay. Does this mean that on all bottles of carbonated beverages ie; pop, energy drinks, there should be the gaping open mouths of those who suffer tooth decay?

Alcohol is bad for me. When are they going to put pictures of people who are in alcohol stupors on those labels? I'm sure you can find them all over the Internet, young people passed out at parties from drinking to much only to have their so called friends write on them, pile garbage on top of them etc. Wouldn't it then be correct to assume this would be a proper label for all forms of alcohol?

Or how about the packaging of children’s protective gear. Maybe they should have the body of a child splattered all over the road on the labels, as a warning of what COULD happen if you don’t wear a helmet or protective gear.

The list can go on and on of things that are bad for you or even things that you should be doing. Eventually will everything be outlawed? Will everything have a label on it that is disgusting?

What really happened to Freedom of Speech? Freedom to advertise is included within that freedom of speech. Was it really lost in the Court Rooms? Or have we just handed it over, by not defending the rights of those we might not agree with.

I for one, hope that the big tobacco companies win their case in Court and you should too, or one day you may be taking a swig of your soda while looking inside the mouth of a five year old who's teeth have rotted out because they were allowed to drink pop. Or as you're taking a big bite of that burger you love, the eyes of a 600 pound person will be squinting back at you. Or as you decide to relax on a Saturday in your backyard having a barbeque, some drunk who was caught sleeping in the gutter after being robbed and killed for being drunk, will be on the side of your beer can.

Come on PEOPLE WAKE UP!!! If we don’t stand up for our rights, they will be slowly ripped away one at a time!! The smokers of this Country are feeling the effects first hand. We the smokers, are the first guinea pigs. We have sat back and quietly said NOTHING!!! We’ve let you berate us for our choices, tell us we stink, you give us dirty looks when you see us light up. You’ve shoved us out into the cold so we can have a few moments of quiet to smoke, kicked us out of our cars in some states, off the sidewalks in others. Yet we have sat back and agreed with you, why? Because deep down we know smoking is bad for us and we don’t want to offend YOU! But in the process of us caring what you think, we have begun the process of giving up rights.

Our rights have been taken from us, which ones are you willing to give up? For your own good.