Caring, Controlling Politicians

NEW YORK CITY is a city which wants to make sure everyone is healthy. Large soft drinks are forbidden; you have to fill the cup up twice to get what you wanted to get in the first place. New Yorkers might not lose any weight, unless they do it burning calories walking back to the soda fountain for a refill. Now it is suddenly illegal to buy cigarettes or any other tobacco products in the city if you are under the age of twenty one. The flaws in this law are so obvious that they hardly need mention. Most twenty year olds can find someone to buy cigarettes. Most eighteen to twenty one year olds are not gonna let some stupid law keep them from getting cigarettes. Eighteen year olds are grown up enough to be forced to fight for their country, but their country does not trust them enough to allow them to choose whether to smoke. But wait; its city, not country, limiting freedom to smoke. My, we Americans have so many layers of government! Better than having it all at the very top, perhaps. Someone's weak response to the widespread criticism of New York City's new anti smoking law was: just because we make them die in battle is no reason to kill them with cigarettes. Highly questionable reasoning. Citizens should be educated against smoking, not coerced against it. Outgoing Mayor Bloomberg signed the law which is intended to make it harder for kids under eighteen to get cigarettes by getting someone between the ages of eighteen and twenty one to buy them. Under the new law, anyone wanting to buy cigarettes will have to solicit help from an older person. It is unclear whether this will really make it harder for kids to get cigarettes, or will merely make polticians feel better about themselves, and look better in the public eye, by pretending they care whether people smoke.