Monday, October 26, 2009

Why Does Carrie Gurney, a Nonsmoker and Cocktail Waitress, Work at a Smoking Establishment?

The Indianapolis Star today has an interview with Carrie Gurney, a nonsmoker and cocktail waitress, at the Front Page, a smoking establishment, in downtown Indianapolis. She complains about the smoking.

Why does she work there when most all businesses in Marion County are now non-smoking?

I do not like shoveling horse manure because of the smell. Somehow I've been able to find a job that avoids shoveling horse manure for my whole life - during both good and bad economic times. Why can't Carrie Gurney find a job in some of the nearly 40,000 non-smoking businesses in Indianapolis?

There may be a good reason for this and I'd like to learn about it. However, finding another job because it is inconvenient or she has to look too hard is not a good reason to me.

I detest most perfumes and I bet I can find a study somewhere that says they cause cancer. So I'd like for all businesses to become non-perfuming as well. I demand that the government make every place in which I work non-perfuming! It's for the children you know.

I also do not like MUZAK. It is offensive, hurts my ears, and I'm sure I can find a study somewhere that it is making me slowly go deaf. I demand that the government make every place in which I work MUZAK free! It's for the children you know.

I find it odd that OSHA, which is the federal agency on workplace safety, has not done anything about second hand smoke for employees. Perhaps it is because the alleged danger of second hand smoke is not compelling to OSHA because the facts don't support it.

Thus I conclude that the current efforts to extend the smoking ban are in fact the efforts of self-designated elites, like Smoke Free Indy, to impose their will on others. It is about people wanting to be given jobs, not earning them. It is about control, not freedom. It is about socialism, not republicanism and liberty. It is about making us all equally miserable, except of course, for the elites.

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