Matt's comment on 'What is legal is not always moral' missed the point of my blog. I am not comparing slaves to cigarette smokers. I am comparing the actions of our government, meaning we the people of America, with regard to slavery and legal cigarettes.

Slavery was legal in America for a time. In other words, it was the will of the American people that the practice of people owning people should be allowed. Eventually the people of America realized slavery was immoral and laid down their lives to outlaw the practice.

Today, we the people allow cigarette manufacturers to concoct a deadly product specifically contrived to addict people and sell it for a profit. When used as directed, cigarette smoking kills more Americans than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs and fires combined*. Cigarettes are a defective product and a drain on society; $100 billion in health care costs are attributed to smoking every year.

If we took seriously the threat posed by cigarettes to our family, friends and society, we would treat cigarettes the way we treat any addictive drug and either make cigarettes illegal or require a doctor's prescription to get a pack. But we don't-

We don't hold cigarettes to the same standards as any other manufactured product; why? Is it because cigarettes have always been around? If so, we are paying heavy price to maintain the status quo.

That we the people allowed people to own people was immoral. That we the people allow cigarettes to be legal is similarly immoral.

We put an end to slavery. We will put an end to legal cigarettes. The question is when?

*http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbsmoke.htm

Petaluma is the funnest town around. One of the most fun things about Petaluma is the unexpected live entertainment you are likely to find. Yesterday was like most any Sunday in Petaluma unless you were fortunate to be in the little park next to the Petaluma Yacht Club where on Saturday and Sunday, from 11-5, there was an accodian festival.

The gentleman holding the small, wooden accordian in Tony Raymann. Before he started to play, he told the audience the accordian is older than Petaluma!

Because something is legal does not make it moral. History is filled with examples of practices that were legal at one time but that today are illegal and, in retrospect, are viewed as immoral.

The question of legal versus moral can be raised in America today regarding cigarettes.

The surgeon general of the United States issued a warning about the negative health consequences of smoking cigarettes fifty years ago. Since that warning was given, MILLIONS of Americans have died as a result of cigarette smoke, many of them non-smokers. Study after study has proven that cigarettes are addictive and deadly. There is also a large body of evidence that indicates cigarettes manufacturers intentionally design cigarettes to be that way. Other than cigarettes, no other product legally available today will kill hundreds of thousands of its users as well as innocent bystanders every year when used as directed.

In the year 2000, the total number of deaths from all illegal drug usage was 17,000; that same year 435,000 deaths were attributed to tobacco.* Why isn't tobacco public enemy #1 in our war against drugs?

There are two basic reasons cigarettes are legal in America: a small number of people have grown very wealthy selling cigarettes and those people have used their enormous wealth to buy the votes needed to keep cigarettes legal. If vast sums of money could not be made selling cigarettes or if our elected representatives cared more about the health of their constituents than money, cigarettes would not be legal.

The practice of slavery was legal once but with great effort and the sacrifice of many lives, it was eventually outlawed. The proponents of slavery made some of the same arguments in support of slavery that proponents of keeping cigarettes legal make today. Those in favor of slavery defended their right to run their business free of government intervention. Because slavery was the foundation of an efficient economic system, to outlaw slavery would ruin the economy.

Regardless of the economic consequences of ending slavery, ending the inherent evil of slave labor was worth what it cost to end the practice. Today we look back on a time when it was legal to own another human being and wonder how people of the time justified slavery. I believe one day people will look back on a time when, for economic reasons, millions of Americans died from exposure to cigarettes and those people will wonder how we justified making cigarettes legal.

It took courage on the part of our leaders and great sacrifice by hundreds of thousands of Americans (At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War) to end the practice of slavery. It will also take courage and sacrifice to make cigarettes illegal. Will we be the ones to change the law or will we leave it to a future generation? Hundreds of thousands of our family members and friends will die every year we fail to act.

*http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30#item1

Part Three: Meeting the cast

Part Two: Fun with fruit