Jay GreesonWant to know the most isolated group in America?
Tobacco users.
They get it from all ends and have no champion or rallying cry about their freedom or choices or personal persecution.
They are fair game. Need to vent some frustrations? Rally against the smoker.
Heck, in Tennessee we can take guns to parks now; in San Francisco they are trying to outlaw all tobacco at parks. So we can bring a shotgun to the ball field but not a Skoal Bandit.
That said, if you think youth league calls are dicey now, well, here’s hoping the umps start buckling down now that everyone from the team mom to the first-base coach could be packing.
Hey, this is not an endorsement of tobacco. It’s addictive and a killer, and the people who use it know that. I dipped for almost 20 years before quitting cold turkey because I didn’t have a good explanation for my then 2-year-old son.
But even in our overly politically correct society, the American tobacco user is still an eligible target.
If you back the tobacco-bashing movement because of rising health-care costs, then what’s next, everyone becoming a teetotaling vegan?
If you support doubly expensive insurance for tobacco users, don’t be shocked when a few extra pounds are going to cost you a few extra dollars out of your check.
Everyone else? Well, if they can’t do exactly as they please exactly when they please, then it’s a violation and someone needs to get the ACLU on the blower.
Look around. There are fewer avenues of choice because we have to be all-inclusive and all-participating; that in and of itself is limiting freedom. It’s Upward Basketball meeting a group skate on a national stage to the point that all-encompassing freedom means in a lot of ways a compromised freedom for all.
And the double standard seems baffling at times.
Take the juxtaposition of two businesses and their religious views in regard to same-sex marriage.
Johns Hopkins University’s student leaders voted to tell Chick-fil-A no, thanks, because of the Cathy family’s well-known, hard-core religious view against same-sex marriage. OK, take a vote and a stand and we’re pretty sure Chick-fil-A will find somewhere else to peddle “Mor Chikin.”
An Oregon bakery stands to lose everything because the owners politely refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple, who sued. A recent six-figure ruling in the suit puts the bakery on the edge of bankruptcy.
In fact, when an online group tried to help the bakery by raising more than $100,000 in eight hours, the online site withdrew the effort because of social pressure from the Internet morality mob.
Be different. Be who you are. That’s your freedom.
But do not expect everyone to like it or support it. That’s their freedom of choice.
There are no easy answers to complex questions like this, but isn’t personal freedom a two-way street? Which is more valuable, a person’s ability to choose their mate or their God? Should they not be equally respected regardless of interpretation?
There is not a one-sized fits all cookie cutter for everyone in everyone’s eyes, and that’s OK. It’s stressful, sure, but it’s OK.
Kind of makes you want a cigarette.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Jay Greeson’s column appears on Page A2 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. His sports columns are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. You can read his online column the 5-at-10 Monday through Friday at timesfreepress.com after 10 a.m. Contact him at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @ jgreesontfp.