To the editor:

The issue of a smoking ban is not an issue between smokers and nonsmokers. It is an issue between those who respect property rights and those who do not.

Our country was founded on the inalienable right of each person to his own life and property, not on the right of each person to eat at a pleasant-smelling restaurant. Restaurants have the same right to determine their smoking policy as they do to determine their seating policy, the food they serve, or whom they serve. If members of the community desire a restaurant that forbids smoking, they should make their wants known to restaurants and give their business to those who give them what they ask.

Rights are not up for vote, nor are they subject to anyone’s arbitrary notion of “public interest.” Those who support a smoking ban do not fight for the rights of individuals; they fight to impose their will over another group of people. If our government allows the violation of rights, even in cases that appear as minor as this one, how can any right be guaranteed?

As a person who has never smoked a cigarette, who asks for the nonsmoking section and who respects property rights, I encourage everyone to reject any proposed ban on smoking.

Darren Cauthon,

Lawrence