A Bar Owner in Charleston, West Virginia is willing to go all the way in fighting the state’s smoking ban.
Kerry Ellison owns the Blackhawk Saloon in Charleston, West Virginia, and he joins the ranks of several heroic business owners who are fighting the government in its war against private property and personal choice. Ellison just wants to run his business as he sees fit. For this, he finds himself him in court, and regularly visited by the health department.
"I don’t work for the county health department. I am not one of their deputies. I have no authority to prevent anyone from smoking," Ellison says.
He’s absolutely right. Government has no business demanding that private business owners act as law enforcement officials.
Ellison is the first business owner convicted under West Virginia’s anti-smoking law, and it appears that he knows what is at stake. It’s possible that his business could have to close in result of the smoking ban, so Ellison could well lose his livelihood. When Kerry Ellison needed someone to stand up and fight for him, he found that person by looking right in the mirror.
Ellison was fined by a Kanawha County court, but he recognizes that such abuse is to be expected in his battle. "We’re going to go to the next level and see what happens there, and I guess we’ll come back here four or five more times if they want to." Ellison intends to take his fight all the way, even if it means that his business will be forced to close.
FORCES salutes Kerry Ellison in his rightful stand against public health’s tyranny.
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