Common Problems, Common Solutions The chances are that you made up your mind about smoking a long time ago-and decided its not for you. The chances are equally good that you know a lot of smokers-there are, after all about 60 millions of them, work with them, play with them, and get along with them very well. And finally its a pretty safe bet that youre open-minded and interested in all the various issues about smokers and nonsmokers-or you wouldnt be reading this. And those three things make you incredibly important today. Because they mean that yours is the voice-not the smokers and not the anti-smokers-that will determine how much of societys efforts should go into building walls that separate us and how much into the search for solutions that bring us together. For one tragic result of the emphasis on building walls is the diversion of millions of dollars from scientific research on the causes and cures of diseases which, when all is said and done, still strike the nonsmoker as well as the smoker. One prominent health organization, to cite but a single instance, now speeds 28 cents of every publicly-contributed dollar on education and only 2 cents on research. There will always be some who want to build walls, who want to separate people from people, and up to a point, even these may serve society. The anti-smoking wall-builders have, to give them their due, helped to make us all more keenly aware of choice. |