To the editor:

I smoked from the time I entered Kansas University as a freshman until I had open-heart surgery and four heart bypasses when I was 46. Helluva lesson. Having your heart stopped for an hour while a team of surgeons fillets you for more than $70,000 is a not-so-smart way to stop smoking, and a fine opportunity to evaluate your life and the choices you made. I am 56 now, so I think my 137 surgical staples and a yard of stainless-steel wire holding my rib cage together earned me something. I earned the right to have an expert opinion. I smoked for more than 35 years.

Today, smoking can only be regarded as an act of total denial. “It won’t happen to me.” Right. The only defense smokers have is that it is their “right.” I had a “right” as well. It nearly cost me my life, my wife and seeing my daughters through college.

The ethics of smoking; what an oxymoron. The right to slowly kill yourself and perhaps take a few bystanders with you. My favorite restaurant prides itself on its delicious and wholesome organic foods, yet it champions returning to a smoking establishment. Does no one see the irony (and double standard) here?

Our City Commission did the right thing for the right reasons. The next time a restaurant or bar owner asks for your vote, remember that their sole motivation is their bottom line. They are asking you to vote for their health, not your health. You wouldn’t allow them to poison your food, would you?

Jerry Bottenfield,

Lawrence