Today my city is holding a vote to banish smoking in all public areas, all in the name of “protecting people’s right to breathe clean air”. I’d like to point out that it’s at the cost of business owners’ rights to decide what they want for their business. Employees have a choice as to whether or not they want to work at a smoking establishment; many, many places in Springfield are smoke-free anyway, so it’s hardly a matter of anyone being forced to be around second-hand smoke against their will. You already have the right to clean air, this ban won’t give it to you; go to one of the many places that don’t allow smoking.
I’m not a smoker, and I believe the clean air alliance has good intentions, but I do not think it’s a fair trade-off, this one right (that you already have, without a smoking ban) for another. I’ll be blunt in saying, if you don’t like being around smoke, don’t go to a place that allows smoking, and please, look at the bigger picture here.