Editor:This may come as a shock to people like Zacrey Monte Hansen (“New laws make smokers second-class citizens,” Jan. 29), but SMOKING IS NOT A RIGHT.Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution or the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights is smoking even hinted at. It is an activity that the government generously ALLOWS you to engage in, despite the known dangers to both yourself and others. I know there will be responses to this letter that claim “freedom of expression,” to which I reply in advance: “Your freedoms end when they harm another.”Smoking clearly falls under that category.Every other activity that harms others is classified as a crime. Perhaps a better analogy than Zacrey’s about video games (which do NOT harm other people) would have been with some “poor” guy having to go outside in the cold to beat his wife and children.Smokers should be grateful that their little “hobby” isn’t completely illegal, and that lighting up doesn’t result in them doing time in prison.
Paul OlsenSenior, Accounting