
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990                   TAG: 9006060391
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA TUCKER-MAXWELL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOBACCO'S DOLLARS STILL GREEN

ONE DAY recently as I lay on a cold, paper-wrapped examining table in my doctor's office, waiting for him to check me out, he asked me where I was working. I replied, "An office in Vinton - the local sales office for a tobacco manufacturing company."

His replay of my answer with a look of horror on his face did nothing for my blood pressure. Nor did his question: "Can't you find a place to work where you're not helping to kill people?"

I was stunned and it took me a few minutes to come up with a proper bon mot: "You are starting to get some money on your old bill, are you not?" He had the good grace to blush.

I can either quit my job, or those people to whom I owe money can be big-hearted and forgive my debts, if where I work is going to bother them. Somehow, I don't see me quitting (the pay is excellent - so are the hours), and I certainly don't see my creditors saying, `'It's OK. You can forget about that bill." Had the doctor recoiled in disgust, and gone out to his receptionist and had her write me a check to refund the "blood money" I had just paid on my bill, I could have accepted his outrage.

I don't smoke. I quit cold turkey eight years ago, after smoking at least 2 to 2 1/2 packs a day. But - and this is a big `but' (no pun intended), I am not a reformer. You want to smoke, go ahead.

I don't fuss about people smoking in my presence, either. If I did, my husband of 29 years would be gone and I would never see my mother, sister, several cousins and many very good friends.

My motto is live and let live - it's their choice, not mine. And they have the right to that choice - this is still the land of the free, is it not? I may not agree with other people's ways, but they have to live (or die) with their choices.

I can think of a lot worse things that can be done and on a scale of 1 to 10, ranking the worst as 10, cigarette smoking would be about 3. So before people open their mouths and put their feet in them up to their ankles, they better remember that money made off cigarettes pays a lot of outstanding bills in this country.

We are fast becoming a nation of hypocrites - speaking out of both sides of our mouths (and around our feet). I'll wait to see (probably a long, long, time) if anybody refunds or refuses any payments I make on my bills because they are against cigarettes and smoking. Shall I keep you informed?

by CNB