A Minnesotan’s Counter-proposal

We present a proposed alternative to the "smokers’ shack" remission now being debated in the Healthist College of Cardinals formerly known as the Minnesota Legislature.
Attorney Mark Benjamin of Minnesota "Theatre Night" fame writes us in appreciation of our recent article on the proposed legislative largesse of permitting some shacks or sties for smoker pigs. He also suggests an alternative legislative measure which we fully endorse. Mister Benjamin writes:

I read your article at Forces.org regarding the proposal for smoking shacks. I agree that this won’t help our bar owners, even if we could all agree on how they should be constructed and the owners had enough money and space and the weather didn’t get too cold and so on.

It won’t help the bar owners because smokers would still be getting up and leaving their friends to go outside to smoke — breaking the energy and ruining the fun. Anybody who watches a Flomax commercial understands this. The point is that smokers will leave sooner and the bar owners will still have the same problem: a fall-off in customers and income.

So we have to change attitudes. Why should we have smoking shacks and make smokers leave the bar to go smoke? We should turn it around. We should have non-smoking shacks and have non-smokers leave the bar to go get a breath of fresh air.

Think about it. A bar hosting Theater Night puts the patrons on notice that there will be smoking in the bar. Any non-smoker entering that bar knows that he or she will be breathing second-hand smoke. So if they want relief, they can go outside to the non-smoking shack.

It’s all about attitude and respect. Why should smokers go out to a shack? Let’s put both options on the table and see how non-smokers react when we suggest that they should go out to the shack.

You’re right. Non-smokers would be indignant. So why should they be surprised that smokers would feel the same way?

You guys are great. And the show goes on.

— Mark Benjamin

We applaud "Theatre Night" and Mark Benjamin’s inspired non-smokers’ shack suggestion.