{"id":670976,"date":"2010-02-19T19:24:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011132541_parksbackandforthsmokingban.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-19T19:24:16","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:24:16","slug":"parks-back-and-forth-smoking-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/670976","title":{"rendered":"Parks back-and-forth smoking ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Welcome ruling, but ban guns as well<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is interesting that \u201cpublic pressure\u201d saved the right for smokers to pack in and consume their addiction at public parks [\u201cNo smoking ban after all,\u201d NWFriday, Feb. 19]. Not being a smoker, I laud Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher\u2019s solution of requiring smoker\u2019s to steer clear of non-puffers by at least 25 feet.<\/p>\n<p>It occurs to me that a similar restriction could be placed on those individuals who demand the right to tote guns in and around children play areas. Since guns have a farther range \u2014 and are more immediately lethal than cigarette smoke \u2014 it might be prudent for Gallagher to set aside special \u201cgun parks\u201d similar to Seattle\u2019s numerous \u201cdog parks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This should please the gun-dependent and preserve \u2014 if not improve \u2014 our murder-rate statistics. In these set-aside areas, gun-packing citizens could frolic and play brandishing their weapons. I assume no leashes would be required.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 David Clifton, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Unwelcome reversal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher was right the first time around and shouldn\u2019t have caved in on his position. There\u2019s no getting around it: Smoking is pollution.<\/p>\n<p>If we have the expectation that governments should rid our planet of toxic industrial waste-byproducts, then how are we wrong in similarly expecting them to keep parks clear of smokers when the only difference between these is a matter of degree?<\/p>\n<p>What Chernobyl was on a massive industrial scale, smoking is on a private individual scale \u2014 it\u2019s pollution.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Herb Aldinger, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome ruling, but ban guns as well It is interesting that \u201cpublic pressure\u201d saved the right for smokers to pack in and consume their addiction at public parks [\u201cNo smoking ban after all,\u201d NWFriday, Feb. 19]. Not being a smoker, I laud Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher\u2019s solution of requiring smoker\u2019s to steer clear of non-puffers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1735,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2Oyc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}