To the editor:

I have a few comments to make in response to Mike Cuenca’s assertions (Public Forum, May 20) that smoking restrictions have roots in progressive politics.

During the last century, two regimes that placed nationwide restrictions on smoking were the Islamic fundamentalists of Iran and Hitler’s National Socialists in Germany. In fact, tobacco use was attacked as a “relic of a liberal lifestyle” in Nazi propaganda. Surely these are not the progressive movements Mr. Cuenca is thinking of.

Progressives have fought to gain protections for the workers of this nation such as OSHA, and OSHA has regulations concerning tobacco smoke in the workplace. If the public feels that the regulations are too lax, then it needs to petition OSHA for more stringent regulations. You are showing nothing but disdain for this progressive organization by disregarding its regulations and legislating your own.

Tobacco use is a legal activity for the adults of the United States. Business owners should be able to decide what legal activities are allowed in their businesses. If 80 percent of the American public are nonsmokers, there should be no problem passing an outright ban on tobacco in this country. Just remember whose footsteps you’re following in.

Jon Gwartney,

Lawrence