Mom I Love You! Stop Smoking!
It amazes me that even people who have admitted that they decided long ago to stop smoking themselves would be critical of any efforts to help educate and inform people with regard to smoking or using tobacco products. Yet I recently received email from one such person who accused me of being an "antismoking zealot" and that my efforts to educate and inform people was "zero out of the gate," because I make and market antismoking gifts and apparel. Here is my reply:
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your suggestions with regard to the Stop Smoking site at http://www.byteland.org/stopsmoking/index.html, I did run a spell check on the page and there was only one error which was corrected.
This is an educational site and the primary purpose is to raise awareness and motivate people to stop smoking. That is the primary concern which is the objective and WHICH is were the emphasis has been put. If insensitive, uncaring, hurtful and hateful people do not see the wisdom in this regard, or simply do not agree because they make a profit marketing tobacco products or by owning stock in tobacco companies, that simply demonstrates a greater need to raise awareness and campaign against such attitudes.
As for van Gogh and/or Hemingway and their suicides, perhaps only God knows why they took their own lives. I think substance abuse was a factor and certainly is a BIG FACTOR in this day and age with respect to destroying lives and causing infinite hurt and harm to hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Also the illegal trade in narcotics promotes terrorism.
You don't have to be a zealot to realize how many lives are being destroyed by substance abuse. Any idiot should be able to see this. But also GREED plays a big role and the tobacco industry has shown time and again that it is more motivated by GREED than it is concern for the health and welfare of people around the world.
As for law suits against the tobacco industry, the whole world should file a claim against the tobacco companies, especially those developing nations where they are causing great personal hurt, harm and injury. Hence I disagree and believe in the future you will see many more claims in this regard.
As for marketing products to promote STOP SMOKING, you have to realize that the tobacco industry is a hundred billion dollar industry and by comparison all the antismoking promotion in the world generate only pennies. Again, greed is the driving factor here. It is my opinion that when addictive products are marketed which cause hurt, harm or injury to people that it is unconscionable to continues marketing such products and to try to justify this simply by posting warnings on the products. All human consumption of tobacco products should be stopped and manufacture of tobacco products for humans should be stopped. Instead, perhaps the tobacco companies should be making products to kill insects.
Of course in you own stock in the tobacco companies or otherwise profit from promotion of tobacco products, I can understand why you would think anyone who expressed the reasonable and sane opinion that tobacco products should not be used or manufactured for human consumption to be a "zealot." You might say Martin Luther King, Jr., was a zealot or Ghandi was a zealot, as they both promoted human rights and welfare. It is NOT a human right to smoke -- it is a form of slow suicide!
Usage of tobacco products as well as other abuse of chemical substances has hurt, harmed and destroyed millions of lives and continues to do so. This represents such a great destruction of life that I regard it as criminal in nature! As you indicated that you once smoked and "stopped long ago," I can't see why you would object to anyone trying to raise awareness and advocate that people stop smoking. For your information, it has been shown that commercials and advertising which scares people is very effective to change behavior, whether it is drunk driving or other forms of substance abuse. So any emotional appeal to get people to stop using tobacco product is justified if it works!
Commercials always have involved a degree of entertainment and illogic -- that's why you have celebrities endorsing products. Such commercials use false authorities to endorse products, but they work because they appeal to large fans bases. In fact, the tobacco companies have used these methods for years, even creating characters which appeal to children and young people. So I think it is totally logical and appropriate that I use any means or argument I wish to promote awareness with regard to substance abuse, and using tobacco products is a form of substance abuse.
We may never know how big a factor substance abuse was in destroying the lives of van Gogh, Hemingway or other great artists. But it was a factor and continues to be a factor for hundreds of millions of people around the world. My promotions are made for a WORLD WIDE WEB audience, not just for people in America. I will continue to make such educational and promotional material and to market products related to raising awareness with respect to the health and welfare of people everywhere, WHICH needs to be done to save lives!
I'm sorry if you can't see this or are blind to the fact of how many people's lives are being destroyed by substance abuse. Substance abuse includes tobacco products, alcohol and any other substance that people use to excess. What is illogical is to assume that people, especially young people, will always make wise choices with respect to substance abuse. Even adults do not make wise choices in these regards and end up slowly killing themselves.
Perhaps everyone has a God given right to risk their own health by smoking, drinking alcohol or participating is all sorts of other risky behavior. Perhaps you would advocate that all chemical substances be legalized or maybe you just don't care how much second hand smoke you may breath over time. That's your choice and your opinion. My opinion is that substance abuse kills people, so I'll continue to advocate that people stop abusing chemical substances and will use whatever forms of commercial advertising and marketing I so desire to help educate and inform people in these regards -- even if it makes some irate tobacco propaganda lobbyists zealots upset. I suggest they are upset because it may hurt their pocketbooks if people stop smoking altogether -- so it is their credibility that is way beyond "zero out of the gates," in that realm that is the pits of negativity, darkness and pure evil!
Best regards,
Terry Lynch
PS Although you may have stopped smoking long ago, you probably have breathed second hand smoke. Plus, everything is related. All forms of air pollution or chemical contaminates in food may contribute to future ill health. There is nothing wrong with trying to help raise awareness in these regards and there certainly is nothing wrong with people marketing products or raising funds to support good causes. In fact, the tobacco companies should be paying me and everyone else who wants to make antismoking sites and other antismoking ads!
