My First Experience with Anti-Tobacco Activism
I was born to parents that smoked. When I was about 13 and my brother was 11 my brother was 11 the government started telling us that smoking caused cancer and heart disease. We had a number of arguments with my parents about them quitting. All of them were fruitless.
My brother and I got an idea for discouraging my parents from smoking. We swiped their cigarette packs when they wern't looking and sabotaged a few of the cigarettes. We took out just a bit of the tobacco from the end and inserted a trimmed-down cap from a play gun. WARNING!!! KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. This action may lead to child abuse or at least a lot of yelling.
We sat around and waited for the action. My mother was the first victim. As she took her second drag on the cigarette, the superheated air ignited the cap and POW! The look of surprise and bewilderment on her face was priceless as she sat there stunned, with the remains of the cigarette dangling from her lips. Then she glared at us suspiciously so my brother and I ran away, laughing all the way.
The next victim was Dad. He didn't take it quite so well even though the explosion caused the cigarette to blossom into a attractive star shape. He yelled at us and then spanked us soundly so we wouldn't be tempted to try again. Thus, our budding careers as tobacco saboteurs came to an end. Despite our sore behinds, we found our little prank rather satisfying even though it didn't seem to do much good.
I learned that it takes more than an explosive device to separate an addict from their addiction. Today my activism isn't quite so militant, and I try to be much more effective. I prefer to take aim on the product, the habit, and the promoters of this deadly habit.
It is too easy to see smokers as the enemy. In frustration, we may judge them as weak, stupid, ignorant, or foolish, and thereby dehumanize them. I believe this only serves to polarize people and leads to anger and hatred. A minister I knew as a child used to say, "Hate the sin but love the sinner."
My goal is to improve our collective health by eliminating smoke from our shared air. Therefore, our true enemies are not the people who smoke, but rather the tobacco addiction itself, public ignorance, and the greed of corporate interests. Let us focus on those issues instead.