MADISON, WI [ LINK : Capital Times ] Smoking killed my Dad, and I’m angry about that.

But I’m not angry at Philip Morris or tobacco farmers, and I’m not going to do an idiotic accusatory song and dance on television to help me cope.  My father was a grown-up who, every day, made the stupid decision to smoke.  And he’s dead because of it.

As much as I’d like to put the pain of losing him behind me, there are anti-smoking activists who insist upon repeatedly digging up Dad’s corpse and puppeteering it in front of television cameras to further their political agenda.  Effectively, they rip open that old wound and pour salt in it on a regular basis.  This apparently makes them feel better about themselves.  How nice for them.

The latest pathetic attempt by the anti-smoking crowd at being relevant involves a coast-to-coast tour aboard a bus.  Yes, a bus.  A fossil-fuel burning, exhaust-belching, natural-resource-sucking bus full of environmentally-aware hypocrites.

The gimmick is that, you give them money and they let you write on the side of their Greyhound.  I could apparently throw them ten dollars and they’d let me graffiti my Dad’s name over a wheel well.  He’d still be dead, but then I’d be entitled to feel better about myself too, I guess.

Assuming their bus travels a modest 200 mile per day, this group will rack up close to 50,000 miles over the course of their seven month venture.  They’ll burn about 5,000 gallons of fuel (assuming a generous 10 mpg) putting about 20 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere, in their campaign for cleaner air.

This is as ridiculous as if a coalition to fight world hunger flew around the world in a jet fueled by corn.

If you have a loved one who smokes, ask them to stop.  If they don’t, then they’ve made the informed decision that their health, their future, and the heartache of their family and friends are a secondary concern to them.  You, and everybody else in their acquaintance, is of lesser importance to them than tobacco is.

Accept that, and then ask yourself who you’re really angry with.  I’ll bet it isn’t Philip Morris…