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Smoking: 'You Stay Out of My Life, and I’ll Stay Out of Yours'

A minority view, if you don’t mind… straight from the mind of a smoker.

I understand fully what the is all about, and I further understand their .

, and they’re to be commended for their desire to stamp out smoking- it’s a nasty habit, and people shouldn’t do it.

That said, I cannot go along with the .

Full disclosure here- I am a smoker, albeit one who has learned to keep his habit as far away from others as possible.

I get it that there are people who hate it, and I do everything I can to avoid smoking where they can be bothered by it.

I try not to smoke around children- including my 6-year-old grandson.

I don’t even smoke inside my own home.

But I will not agree with the push to pass ever more laws to keep me from lighting up where I can.

At the end of the day, it’s my choice to light up where it’s legal for me to do so.

And please don’t holler at me about children seeing me smoke, and those children thinking it’s fine to do that, too.

If you don’t want your kids to light up, it’s YOUR job to teach them the evils of it- not mine.

Generally speaking, I tend to support the ideals of the Democratic party more than I do the Republicans, but not when it comes to the ever-increasing nanny state the far left of the party seems to think we need.

It’s NOT the government’s business what I do with my life, so long as I’m not robbing banks or planting bombs or the like.

I still believe in the idea of - so I’ll not be “blowing smoke” in someone’s face if they get in mine.

I WILL be somewhat vocal about defending my right to exercise the .

I’m pretty sure the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office has better things to do than bust me for smoking in a corner of some park somewhere- LOTS better things.

Let’s all try to get along a little better than we have been.

You stay out of my life, and I’ll stay out of yours.

If you want to mount the next crusade, perhaps against people having a beer in the parks while having their picnics, you can have at it.

I’ll let the beer drinkers stand up for their own rights to use the PUBLIC facilities their taxes help pay for.

It’s not a problem for me.

I don’t drink.

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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Doug Curlee May 23, 2013 at 12:18 pm
sluggo..this is just a guess, but I think it's a good one..trying to build any kind of trap thereRead More might well fall within the protected riverbed right of way for the san diego river..thereb y guaranteeing years of paperwork and public hearing before you could stick a shovel in the ground for anything.. doug
Mayor Randy Voepel May 23, 2013 at 11:59 am
That section is Cal-Trans and they run that intersection. Also the area next to the intersectionRead More where a runaway feature could be installed, belongs to the City of San Diego not Santee. Santee has asked for various mitigations and Cal-Trans has only responded with more "rumble strips". Very frustrating to everybody in Santee Sluggo including this Mayor.
Fotis Tsimboukakis May 21, 2013 at 03:56 pm
I think the communities, Santee here, should band together and raise that money for schoolRead More supplies,instead of the teachers. I for one would throw in the first $100. I think between the residents and the local businesses we could raise the $10,000 to $15,000 that I am guessing would be needed. In Scripps Ranch, where both my kids attended school, the parents banded together and covered a HALF A MILLION shortfall in no time about 9 years ago during the cuts. And you don't have to have kids in school now to contribute. I don't anymore,BUT GOOD PUBLIC education with the right tools BENEFITS ALL AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA MOST OF ALL. So I am first.
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 16, 2013 at 03:53 pm
Thanks for posting this. I also added this to our events list. In the future I suggest posting anRead More announcement and event for maximum exposure- http://santee.patch.com/posts/event/new Good luck with the fundraiser!
RainWaterSystems May 17, 2013 at 10:58 am
That's awesome! We wish you success and recovery. We suggest two books; A Purpose Driven Life byRead More Rick Warren and Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. I hope to be in a position to hire a salesman this fall.
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 16, 2013 at 10:34 am
Anyone else recommend a Santee family owned business that's outside the city?
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 20, 2013 at 02:31 pm
Search for "Quail Brush" in the search bar in the top right corner.Read More http://santee.patch.com/search?keywords=Quail+Brush
Retha Knight May 17, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Where do you type what you want to view, like "Quail Brush"?
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 17, 2013 at 10:01 am
No drop down menus, just click the header links for more options. For story categories click newsRead More and look on the left hand column. I know the redesign will take a bit to get used to, but I really think it will be a better site for community engagement, and easier to use. Feel free to post your feedback to the redesign on the boards, I'll check it out and respond, but you might also send your feedback straight to Patch headquarters with this form- http://feedback.aol.com/rs/rs.php?sid=patch Engineers will be furiously tweeking the new site based on your suggestions.
Mike Walker April 23, 2013 at 01:20 pm
this is why the battlefield has changed temporarily from the political arena to the Energy Arena.Read More Co Gen Tricks and the usual suspects are making their big money bet on two inevitable facts that will force the hand of the CPUC and CEC to place a new gas power plant somewhere in the area. 1) the Electric Vehicle Mandate. 2) voltage support (power factor) needed by the industrial wind and solar farms in the desert. There is more to what meets the eye with the aggressive push by the usual suspects to cover our open spaces in the East County with these poorly sited RE projects. More wind and solar farms means more gas power plants. There is only one way to fight the destruction of our open spaces, and that is with roof top solar, conservation, energy efficiency and community owned energy districts. The fisrt thing that needs to be done is the City of Santee exempt residential scale PV installs from needing a building permit. Australia, Germany and the State of Vermont do not require a Building Permit to install PV.
Retha Knight April 23, 2013 at 03:48 am
Well said Stephen! Knowledge is TRULY power! The fight is not over! Cogentrix is just onceRead More again playing their wait, wait, wait game in the public eye and playing their lobbying game behind closed doors.
just my opinion April 22, 2013 at 01:04 am
Stephen, well said!!!!!