I Don’t Hate Smokers!!!
I’ve recently received a personal comment on my last blog that ask me, "Why do you hate smokers?" It went on to blast me for being rude and for being prejudice against smokers rights and how someones smoking habits didn’t effect me and was their own business and that I should shut my bleeping mouth and mind my business.
My reply was short and sweet, "You are an ignorant a-hole!"
If there is anyone else out there that thinks I hate smokers please let me set the record straight. I do not HATE smokers!! Let me repeat….NOT HATE SMOKERS!! I don’t hate people but I do feel sorry for them that they let that little chunk of poison control their lives to the point of death. Although I don’t hate the smoker I do hate smoking and everything that it represents. It’s nasty, dirty, it makes you stink, and it interferes with my ability and the ability of my friends and loved ones to breath. The person that wrote me the e-mail said that they enjoyed the taste of ciggerettes and that’s why they smoked. That my friend is a load of horse crap!! I smoked and I can honestly say that taste was never a factor in my smoking….just the opposite…..the taste was and is horrible.
Face facts my friend….the only reason people smoke and are willing to pay $4.00 for a pack is that it’s a drug and you are hooked. Most smokers would probably pay $20.00 for a pack if they had to because they are hooked!!! When you say you smoke to relax my friend it’s because you are hooked and when you get your fix you are once again calm!!! DUH!!!
Drop the excuses and face the facts…..you are addicted to a drug…plain and simple!
My mother was one of the strongest individuals I have ever known. She spent 17 years in an abusive relationship, endured beatings and was humiliated countless times yet somehow found the strength to carry on for the sake of her 4 children. When it became clear to her that she needed to leave for the sake of her children she found the strength to do that……and she also found the strength to raise 4 rowdy ass children on a crappy minimum wage job and put food in their bellies and clothes on their backs and never missed a Little League game or a school program. She even knocked a 185lb, 17 year old kid (me) on his ass once because it needed to be done!!
But guess what???? As strong as that woman was….even after several heart attacks….bi-pass surgery…..hospitalized for several congestive heart failures and several brushes with death…….as strong as she was she couldn’t put down that GD ciggerette knowing it was going to kill her. And it did at the way to early age of 66. WHY????? Because she was hooked……it’s a drug and it will grab ahold of you and squeeze the very life from your body!!!!
So in conclusion please let me say again….I do not hate smokers!!! I don’t even hate the person who wrote the e-mail. But I do hate what you’re doing to yourselves and to those around you who might like to have you around to talk to and share things with longer than 66 years!!!
July 28, 2007 at 11:43 am
Glad to see you set the record straight, Bryan and in the process, tell us a little about your life. I see many similarities between your mom and mine and mine died from lung cancer no doubt from smoking at the age of 61. She too had a hard time quitting even after being diagnosed. Like you, I detest smoking. It really breaks my heart when I have students come to class with a strong smell of cigarrettes on their clothing. If it’s that strong, you know the person responsible isn’t going outside to smoke or taking other measures to protect the child from the dangers of secondhand smoke. AND…the message being sent to the child is that smoking is ok. In my opinion, people need to wake-up and take more responsibiltiy for their actions.
July 28, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I am glad that you set the record straight….don’t you just hate it when people write bad comments to you about something that you wrote and it wasn’t even what you meant! People crack me up….as to the smoking I soooo totally agree with you because my grandpa started smoking when he was about ten years old and when he got older he got enphyzema and bronchitis….well let me tell anyone here that reads this….smoking does kill you! My grandpa just passed away in April and it was because of what he got from smoking….and yes he finally quit smoking but not until he was made to because he had to be put on oxygen…and for all you people out there that say that smoking makes you happy and that you are going to do it until you die….well let me tell you what do think that my grandpa was happy the last year of his life….do you think that he was happy to be taken of life support and for his family to see him live only 10 minutes being off of life support…well you know what I know that he wasn’t and if he could do it all over again he would have either stopped smoking or never even started at all….so to all of you smokers out there…please let us non smokers tell our stories too….and don’t poison pleoples minds by saying that it is cool and that it tastes good and that it makes you feel better! Sorry for being so rude but this struck a nerve!
July 28, 2007 at 4:49 pm
ok smoker haters !!!! j/k I still do smoke and yes I agree it is an addiction! While I was pregnant with my son I quit has soon as I found out stayed quit for almost 2 years! and why I picked back up the habit I don’t know! But it is a mental struggle everyday in which I give back into! as for the smell,there is things u can do I brush my teeth regularly always have some gum and a little body splash !
July 28, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Candace I used to smoke so I know what you’re going thru…I really hope you weren’t offended because I really think your a nice person and I would hate it if I hurt your feelings in anyway. The way I quit is I just convinced myself that if I smoked 1 more ciggerette that would be the one that killed me. I was sure the next puff would be my last so I just never took it. Plus I tried to imagine my kids sitting in the funeral home crying because they’re Daddy was dead! That picture alone kept me from lighting up!
July 29, 2007 at 9:28 am
wow Bryan that is a great read. I think that what you say is entirely true. But like smoking or any addiction including food it is all hard to quit. Smoking i hear is even harder to do.Many options to help you but still you gotta want to or it wont work. Just like excercising….
July 30, 2007 at 10:24 am
Which leads us back to the question: If smoking is so bad for us, why is it legal? The sad answer: because out of that $4.00 a pack, the government is getting roughly 60% of the profit. Excuse me? More than the manufacturer makes? Yes sir! What a travesty, I say. Wake up US government, ban smoking all together, rather than allow and tax an addicting, hazardous product.
July 30, 2007 at 6:38 pm
That’s another very good point. No matter how much you tax smokes and raise the price people will never quit…ever! It is unbelieveable that you can’t buy raw milk, a product that many believe has enormous health benefits, because there is a slight chance of e-coli but they know ciggs will kill you or someone around you for sure yet they are legal. And now many in Washington wants to outlaw supplements because we are too dumb to know how to use them.
November 5, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I have been married for nearly 50 years to a heavy smoker. None of our three sons smoke, but it has ruined us as a family. They will not subject their grandchildren to grandpa’s smoking or the overwhelming smell that engulfs our small home. He refuses to take it outdoors when it is just the two of us in the house. Nobody visits us. I cannot buy clothing gifts as they stink and the kids can’t get the smell out. I have considered divorcing him, and as I see it, that is the only way I can breathe clean air and invite people into our home. I feel he is very selfish, and at this point I have many regrets for not leaving him early on in our marriage when I realized he did not respect me or our children.
March 1, 2008 at 10:09 am
Ok. I was a smoker of 2 or 3 cigarette a day, i stopped it all and has been working since last month. But my performance in bodybuilding has been constant [ mass gained also is about nil], when i perform any work, my hands are as if shaking or trembling on the 2nd repetition. The following say when i take it as rest also, the parts which i trained start to pain.