To the editor:

I have a couple of comments about the smoking ban.

One, I don’t know its reasoning, but the coalition’s idea that the current City Commission would listen to reason is pretty silly. Members should have known that there was no room for negotiation on their side. The commission feels secure with the vocal minority on its side. But that is the way things are done in Lawrence. You have to give commissioners credit. They get all their friends together to vote them in, while the “real” majority sits on their hands and does nothing. Until the real majority realizes this, there will be no change.

Second, I have a major problem with the smoking ban for one simple reason. Think about this for a minute. Why are we in Iraq? Why do we go fight wars around the world?

To give the people of these nations a choice. A choice to do what they want. A choice to decide how they want to live their lives. Now, with that in mind, what did the City Commission do? Rammed a ban down our throats with the help of the vocal minority. What happened to choice?

My suggestion is simple. Lift the ban. The businesses that want no smoking can have it. The ones that will allow smoking can do so.

Just remember. Our kids are fighting and dying for choice. Let us at least use that option of choice in Lawrence, Kansas!

Richard Koleber,

McLouth