It is a shame that your dining experience was ruined. I wish you would put out a list of things that bother you and publish it so that if any of us who are not as intelligent as you and do not really know how to live can accomodate you. I think in fact they should pass a law that a 6' radius around you be designated a peasant free zone, anyone who breaches that should be imprisoned, especially if they would happen to brush against you and leave their stink on you. Votes: +4

Reading Steve Rose’s loose-cannon, long nosed ‘memo’ about Merriam explains why newspaper circulation shrinks and Rose has become ‘publisher’ of a newspaper he doesn’t own and can’t control. Here’s a few facts Mr. Rose can put in his pipe and smoke.




American Cancer Society, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the St. Louis Park MN EPA studies confirm that nicotine levels of smoke in bingo halls and restaurants is safer than OSHA recommended 8 hour levels.




Mr. Rose says smoking bans have NO economic impact. Dead wrong. If so, why are all gambling casinos exempted from smoking bans across America? Can’t smoke, won’t gamble. Explain away the fact that after the California smoking ban began, retail business growth increased 172% but bar growth was a negative number. And why cities in New York and Ohio have stopped enforcing their smoking bans because it was destroying businesses.




Sixty to 80% of all bar customers and 20 – 30% of all restaurant customers smoke. How can these businesses not lose customers when that many customers are legally banned? Several of the bars that my band, Pompous Jack performs at have become private clubs just to get around the smoking ban in other cities.




Mr. Rose is entitled to his opinion, and here in America he can say whatever he wants. He should butt out of Merriam politics because Merriam residents and small business owners believe in individual freedom of choice. If a private business wants to allow smoking, it is their right.




Sincere best wishes,

Merriam Councilman Dan Leap, non-smoker, standing up for freedom. Votes: +6

I just read the editorial by Steve Rose and am once again reminded why newspaper readership is down. Mr. Rose obviously did not do any research before writing his piece but merely puts his personal opinion out here as fact.
Mr. Rose says Charles Merriam must be turning over in his grave and if he read Rose’s article I suppose he is. A man of Mr. Merriam’s era, where self reliance and respect for individual choice was the norm would have seen people like Mr. Rose as self-serving busybodies and I suspect Mr. Merriam would have had Mr. Rose and his friends on the next train out of town.
Next Mr. Rose brings up Sen Wysong’s attempts at a statewide ban. His and others resolutions have been defeated every year they’ve been proposed because Kansans still believes that people have the right to make their own choices, for good or bad. Amendments have been proposed to allow for smoking in adult only establishments such as bars but the people behind these bans refuse to accept them. Why? Because their goal is not just to stop smoking in publicly accessible places but to control how people live in general. Fortunately our legislators have seen what has happened in states like CA where ban supporters have extended their reach into cars and private homes and have refused to pass a statewide ban that would give the nannies a foot in the door here too.
Then we have Mr. Rose’s definitive statement that second hand smoke is deadly which is where we see that Mr. Rose has not done any research but merely parrots the PC line. Second hand smoke has not been proven deadly in any court or properly controlled scientific study. In fact the American Cancer Society, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the St. Louis Park MN EPA have all found levels of nicotine (the largest and only measurable smoke component) to be anywhere from 20,000 (restaurant with separate smoking area) to 584 (bingo hall) times safer than OSHA recommended 8hr levels. Then there is the World Health Organization’s 15 member nation study which found no association between childhood exposure to ETS and lung cancer risk. Interestingly, this study also found that non-smoking children of smokers were less likely to develop lung cancer than other non-smokers later in life. Added to this we have the 118,094, 38 year American Cancer Society member study which found no support for a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality. It also found that the association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed. For some reason both of these organizations fought to prevent publication of these reports.
We also get from Mr. Rose the PC ban supporters line that there is no financial damage from bans. Well, if there is no impact then why are casinos always exempted? Why did CA restaurant and bar growth go negative while other retail soared 172% positive? Why did 58 businesses fail in 8 months in Hennepin County MN, a county comparable to Johnson County, forcing them to relax their ban? Why have counties in NY and OH stopped enforcing their bans? Why did NY experience a negative total economic impact of 2650 jobs lost, $50 million in worker earnings lost and $71.5 million in gross state product lost post ban? How can you not have financial damage when 60-80%(bars) and 20-30%(restaurants) of your customers have been banned? This is the most illogical, but typical, of the ban supporters claims. They will tell you of how nice a trip somewhere smoke free was but neglect to tell you how few places there were to go to.
Mr. Rose then asks why Merriam still allows smoking. The people of Merriam still believe in freedom of choice and feel that if a private business wishes to allow smoking, a perfectly legal activity by the way, that is their right as an American citizen. America has fought wars in defense of freedom, wars which the likes of Mr. Rose make a mockery of as they steadily chip away at the rights of their fellow Americans.
Finally, Mr. Rose suggests putting a ban on a ballot. Oh Mr. Rose, how can you say this, you who have been around politics much of your life. You know as well as anyone that the majority rarely gets out and votes and that a majority of a minority can pass laws inimical to the majority. How about this: we also put something on the ballot that forces newspapers to present both sides of a story such as this and see just how often the so-called majority votes for issues such as this. The fact is that several recent ban initiatives nationwide, three of them in our area, have been defeated as people come to see that once again they are being misled by people whose interests are self serving and not in the interest of the real majority.
Votes: +1