Greetings to all the fine folks of Columbia and Marion County. I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed a safe and blessed Thanksgiving. I would like share a personal opinion on a certain topic that I hope will enlighten everyone in America as well as give our community an opportunity to get on the map so to speak.
Recently broadcast on the local news was a story of a new push for a $1.50 increase per pack on the cigarette tax. Reason stated as to increase the incentive to quit with an added bonus that the state could use the additional income.
Now don’t jump to any judgment yet that I am defending smoking. Yes, I have smoked many packs in my life, but I decided to lay them down some 35 years ago. Please take note to the reference “I” decided. In today’s society it seems somebody else knows better than you about what is and isn’t best for you.
For many years there has been a warning printed on each and every package containing tobacco products being harmful to your health. Now also is a printed note included by demand of a federal judge referring to the addictiveness of nicotine with accusations that tobacco companies added nicotine for this purpose.
Tobacco use has been demonized to be the leading cause of cancer for 50-plus years but still cannot be proven. Fact is that smoking or tobacco in general only reduces the body’s ability to fight any disease. Now some brilliant entrepreneur has invented a replacement for cigarettes called e-cigarettes that are receiving a brutal attack.
I have also had an increasing interest in learning how people did various tasks well before my birth almost 60 years ago. Through my various reading and research I have acquired a fair amount of knowledge of self sufficiency. One publication I adamantly read contains an article about growing tobacco. No, I don’t practice everything I read. The magazine is entitled “The Backwoodsman,” and the article briefly covers different types of tobacco but the interesting part was Rustica tobacco and I quote “the nicotine level is usually very high; it should be blended for smoking or just used for insecticide.” Contrary to the published accusation that tobacco companies added nicotine to make it habit forming.
Maybe someone forgot to mention this to the author of the article. Point noted that nicotine is in the tobacco naturally and not an additive. Wikipedia states that nicotine comes from plants of the nightshade family.
On a daily basis we as Americans are losing our freedom without even acknowledging it. Little by little we are giving it away. Even the 1st and 2nd amendments to the U.S. Constitution are being chipped away. We have certain things that can’t be said in public, true or not, without legal consequences. There goes the 1st Amendment. Now we have cries for “tactical weapons bans.” There goes the 2nd Amendment. Chip by chip we are becoming the pictorial portrayal of the Native American chiefs with the caption saying “lay down your weapons, the government will take care of you.”
Now let’s bring national attention locally. I propose that our county and city officials stop collecting or receiving any tax revenue derived from tobacco. If we are sincere about eliminating tobacco from our society, then we are going to have to give up on the income from it. This means NO sales tax. NO income tax from the businesses that deal with tobacco and NO tax from someone who wishes to grow tobacco for the market. Added to the lost revenue from tobacco make sure NOT to accept any grants or other funding derived from tobacco.
Let’s show the nation just how dedicated we are to eradicating tobacco from our society. The city accepted a grant a few years ago of $5,000 to ban smoking in public places but never considered the local patrons who smoke. Assume, for instance, that 30 percent of local people smoke. How many times have those people decided to just stay home instead of going shopping or how many decided to cook at home instead of going out to eat? How long before that grant is wasted, but businesses are still losing revenue from a loss of a chip of freedom?
Honestly I have no expectations of a tax-free industry no more than I have of eradicating tobacco. By eliminating tobacco just think of the increase of unemployment combined with the drastic decrease in revenue. I have no intent of upholding nor demonizing tobacco nor am I making a case for firearms, only pointing out the facts as presented.
If tobacco causes cancer, it would have been proven instead of assuming. If any type of firearm killed people, they would contain a way to function by themselves. In the world we live in today nothing has to be proven, only assumed or considered probable. After an assumption is repeated so many times it builds a following and then nothing is based on facts. If we as Americans don’t stop believing assumptions and start demanding proof there will be no more Constitution and no more America, home of the free.
My closing statement is borrowed from a radio personality of years done gone: “Wake up America.”
Kenneth McNease is a Columbia resident. Reach him at krmcnease@gmail.com.
