It's good to see opposition --- elected --- to the city of Ennis' unconstitutional citywide smoking ban. Ward 1 Commissioner Jeremie Salik, a smoker who defeated smoking ban author Red Sanders on May 8, dissented, he did not "abstain." He dissented.
The media needs to get a grasp of basic political/legal terminology. The Ward 1 commissioner Salik voted against putting this smoking ban together. HE DISSENTED. HE DID NOT ABSTAIN.
The Ennis Daily News could do a better job of educating people if they would simply get the word games in order. That's not to say I haven't been wrong before, because God knows I have, but I fully expect people to point that out when I do get it wrong.
But when you vote in opposition, you do not "abstain." You dissent. Abstaining from votes are you not voting on the issue at all.
Kudos to Salik for being the only city commissioner to stand up for private property rights for business owners. Ward 1 voters showed the smoking ban author Sanders the door --- in a big way. Sanders finished with 21 votes. Remember, this is a district that got rid of Byron Walker and replaced him with Sanders two years ago. But Sanders proposed the smoking ban -- a citywide one -- and he got his butt handed to him in the election.
I want to test-run a few contested Ward races and see how an anti-smoking candidate faces against one of the entrenched guys...a 5-1 vote is a start...it's the piece of chink in the armor that Ennis has now ...and maybe with Salik's starting it off, we can all get behind others to show that there's at least one...because all it takes is one to show us the way.
I don't like people smoking in restaurants or in bars. But I would defend an owner's right to do so since it is HIS BUSINESS to run as he/she sees fit.
ResponderEliminarI was sitting in a bar several years ago in Syracuse NY, just after the public place, yes even private business establishments, smoking ban was put in place.
ResponderEliminarMany were still lighting up in there and there were even a couple of police officers there that had lit up. I don't know how much this happens, I'm sure it's sparse, but there.
I also don't care for cigarette smoke, as an x-asthmatic, but I too believe in private property rights as the bedrock of our freedoms. Hopefully, just as alcohol prohabition faded away into the night, so also will this moronic NAZI like governmental intrusion into every part of our life.
BY the way, cuddos and dittos to tipsy and charlotted