I really enjoy your newspaper and thanks for having such great articles. I was very interested in your article by Bradley Osborn on Higher Smoking Rates. So many of the bars in greater Kansas City are complaining about their lack of business. Well, I for one, along with dozens of my friends have simply STOPPED going to the bars simply because we are tired of the smoke! Nothing is worse than being in a smokey bar and then to find out once you get home that the smokey smell is still all over your clothes. Luckily I get to travel to California and Florida a lot in my business and those bars in those two States are always packed with plenty of guys and guess what? There is NO SMOKING in any of the bars there. Rather than business dropping, business actually rose in those States once their smoking ban went in to law.
So, sure, let those bartenders and owners keep whining about not having any business as they smoke away. Nothing is worse than to order a drink at a bar and have the bartender have a cigarette hanging out of their mouth and then dip your glass in the ice container getting more of their ashes in it too! Just because they are stupid and dumb and ignorant, why should others have to tolerate it? Well, we don't put up with it. Just like in restaurants and hotels "things are a changin" Clean air is more important to most than to the few who smoke. How many gays and lesbians have to die of lung cancer until they wake up and smell the roses?
Just as soon as greater Kansas City has their smoking ordinance, then, and only then will my friends and I return to the gay bar scene in Kansas City. Otherwise we will continue to have social gatherings in our condos/homes.
Thanks,
Matthew C.
Shawnee Mission, KS
