Did I “scream” about cancer? No. I asked a question. The question was 100% sincere, not a disguised dig at all. I lived in a state pf perpetual terror on some level of my consciousness with every drag on the cigarette. So did all my friends who quit, and all my friends who still smoke. I find it absolutely amazing that someone could express fear of the pains of quitting and speak as though the probable result of continuing to smoke didn’t faze them.
Yes, I hijacked a bit, but I was not hysterical or accusatory. I didn’t scream at anyone. Frey asked a question, and as a smoker for 26 years, I felt absolutely qualified to answer it. What I said was true. For me, for my friends, and probably for you - you just don’t realize it. But if someone had asked me a year ago (before I began to realize what was really going on) I might have told them that I enjoyed it.
So you can rag me for not being on the side of the OP, but be fair about it. I did not scream, and I did not preach.
By the way, if you could (and it is certainly possible) wouldn’t you really rather NOT be feeling that way about smoking? Wouldn’t you rather, given that you are no longer smoking, no longer want to? Your current attitude/belief system does not bode well for your continuing as a non-smoker, ya know.
Oh, and to answer your question about
"Did you enjoy this when you smoked? Did it help you want to quit? Or blow smoke in those people’s faces? I promissed when I quit smoking that I would remain consistant about these things. I still feel the same about smokers rights (and non-smokers rights for that matter), I still hang out with people who smoke. "
I am also consistent. The only reason that anyone “preaching” at me ever bothered me was because I knew they were right, as I stated earlier. If I honestly don’t agree with someone, their preaching, bitching, complaining, whatever, doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
And in fact, social disapproval has been a mighty force in stopping people from smoking. In 1950, 75% of the American public smoked. Now 75% do not. That figure is probably even higher in California, where I live, and where smoking is verging on being a crime. We’ve known about the health risks for 40 years, but the massive scale of quitting has been a relatively recent phenomena, since it has become socially uncool to do so.
As for smoker’s rights… it’s been a long time since I felt I had any substantial ones. At least 10 years, which is the last time I tried to quit and experienced life from the other side, and understood how perfectly nauseating cigarette smoke is. ( And this from someone who remembers a world where you could smoke everywhere, even hospitals!) So even when I smoked, I understood that I was completely invading the space of anyone within 20 feet of me. My only right was the right to smoke when I was completely alone or in the company of other smokers.
I also hang out with people who smoke. I love them, I just don’t love their smoke.
And ya know what…I gotta be honest. I can’t bullshit you or anyone else. The OP made me sad, and it made me mad. What a terrible thing to try and get support for the choice to keep smoking, when it is so incredibly harmful. So even though I didn’t preach or scream, I confess that my point was absolutely to try and disarm the idea that smoking is a good thing. I view smoking as an evil addiction that is killing everyone who does it and messing with their mind at the same time. I was offended and disturbed by the OP. But this in my defense: I would have felt exactly the same 6 months ago. And actually, now that I think about it, I’ve ALWAYS felt that way. Before I took it up to be cool at the age of 16, I hassled my mother constantly about it, telling her that her lungs were going to turn black, she was killing herself, etc. But hey, I wanted to be cool.
Okay, I’m done. I sort of apologize for the hijack (I did it deliberately, as I said, but Satan’s disapproval makes me sad so I feel I should. I was a bad girl.) and I invite you to return unmolested to your songs of praise for the smoking life.
