Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Is Kathy Cox's faith in our community misplaced? I hope the people of Peachtree City and Fayette County will do a better job of supporting Kathy Cox's faith in you in regards to local control in education as Georgia's newly elected Superintendent of Schools than you have shown over the past four years in regards to tobacco smoke.

She believes in your commitment to your family and your community, but as far as I have seen, you have not shown her faith to be well-placed. You have been too busy to put the time and effort in to fix the problem, and it shows.

You have a chance today to support her belief over 4 and 1/2 years ago that a smoking ban (which I supported) was not necessary, that the people of our community would support the businesses that put protecting your health first over encouraging irresponsible smoking.

It has taken four years but we finally have the first restaurants with full-service bar areas willing to risk their profits (especially those from liquor sales) by offering smoke-free air. The Ruby Tuesday in Fayetteville was the first. Then on Oct. 14 the Ruby Tuesday in Peachtree City became the second one I have been able to find. They chose the simplest and most cost effective solution. They went totally smoke-free. It means smokers simply step outside to smoke.

Do you understand the risk they are taking? Businesses require profits to survive! As a flight attendant when we had meaningless "smoking sections" on airplanes like you still find today in other restaurants, we quickly came to realize that our smokers were our drinkers. We sold almost all of our liquor in the smoking section. Liquor is a much higher profit item than food. It carries a higher markup while it has little spoilage and requires less time and effort in preparation.

Our Ruby Tuesdays are risking their profits by being the first to encourage responsible smoking. They want to help smokers to recognize that by simply stepping outside to smoke it limits their own exposure to the dangers found in tobacco smoke to just that smoke that is actually giving them the nicotine they crave.

By protecting their own health, responsible smokers and responsible businesses then also protect everyone else's health. No one needs to sit in the smoker's overflowing wastes the wastes that can make you sick enough to die when the smoker simply steps outside to smoke.

In Peachtree City we offered another solution but so far not even one restaurant has chosen to offer smoking in a separately ventilated area which lets the smokers sit in their own waste while no one else has to. But it takes more time, effort and expense so you will only find it in our industrial park (reflecting more computer and flammability concerns).

Remember, health issues (like tobacco smoke exposure) work the same way education and retirement security work. You have to make the effort today, in spite of the fact that you won't see the benefits until later in life.

Or you can continue to do what so many irresponsible restaurants, irresponsible businesses, irresponsible smokers and other irresponsible Americans do. Just ignore the problem, hope someone else will take care of it for you, because doing nothing is easier than making the effort to fix the problem. Also, the price of doing nothing doesn't come due until later in life so they ignore the risks today.

Show the other restaurants and Kathy Cox that you are willing to make the effort to protect yourself and your family and make our community a safer, better place to live.

Kathie Cheney

Peachtree City