In the Smokefree Revolution we want to step beyond the current smokefree
organizations to take more aggressive proactive stands. We want to ensure
that persons who want to claim their right to breathe clean air will be able
to do it in this lifetime. Our intent is to change the tobacco culture by
changing the perceptions and actions of people who don’t smoke. Changing
laws is useless without compliance of those laws! This is a grassroots
organization that requires its members to take personal responsibility for
changing the world! We feel it is very important to support existing
smokefree organizations, to keep writing letters to politicians and work on
all front against the tobacco pandemic! We, however, need to be the foot
soldiers in the war against secondhand tobacco smoke! We are not interested in advocating for
smokers except to defend their right to overcome their addictions. Every
single time the needs of nicotine addicts are considered those needs are
always satisfied at the expense of the rights of others to breathe clean air!
We need to always be clear that the only acceptable solutions to tobacco
smoke pollution are those that eliminate the pollution entirely. That means a
total ban on smoking everywhere except in private homes! It means no more
compromises brokered by the tobacco industry! Technically smoking in public
is already illegal because many of the toxic elements of tobacco smoke are
already banned! If smokers find it difficult to live in a world that protects
the right to breathe clean air then they should stop smoking! We don’t
intend to wait for politicians, business owners or smokers to agree to give
us what is already rightfully ours! We intend to move up from the back of the
bus and demand our rightful places in the world!
Every struggle for equality begins when oppressed people wake up to their
oppression. They must first learn how their oppressors have coerced them into
submission, then persuade their peers to stand up and say no to their
oppressors! It’s difficult for some people to understand that the struggle
for smokefree air is a fight for civil rights. Like many other battles for
equality it means taking abusive privilege away from a minority and giving
equality to everyone. Historically the privileged minority has never given up
without a battle. In this battle we are up against a powerful industry that
wants to continue to make huge profits from a product that kills people. We
are also up against a culture of nicotine addicts who want to protect the
privilege of satisfying their addictions at the expense of everyone around
them. There are no rational excuses for the continuation of tobacco culture
the way it has existed in the past. If the same rules applied to the tobacco
industry that apply to other industries they would be both illegal and
bankrupt! We need to be clear that the debate over tobacco is a debate about
whether human life is more important than profits and addiction! We also need
to be clear that most of the public is ready for smokefree air. What stands
in the way are huge political contributions from tobacco companies,
misconceptions about the role of tobacco taxes, huge profits for tobacco
investors and irrational business owners who believe tobacco propaganda
instead of common sense!
The smokefree revolution requires a commitment from every person who doesn’t
smoke! We need to reclaim the world for ourselves. It means we must demand
that our lives be totally smokefree all the time, no exceptions. Zero tolerance
of secondhand tobacco smoke requires us to walk away, speak up
and boycott! We need to walk away from anyone who doesn’t respect our right
to breathe clean air. We need to politely remind smokers to take
responsibility for their smoke polluting the air and harming other people. We
need to boycott all businesses, friends’ homes, parties, public meetings and
any place that isn’t totally smokefree! We are the majority! If we change our
habits, the world will become smokefree much sooner! This means everyone of
us has to take responsibility for our part in allowing tobacco to rule our
cultures and our lives. Each time we remain silent because it’s easier, we
contribute to the continuation of tobacco abuse!
Boycott!
Boycott all businesses that allow their customers and employees to be exposed
to secondhand tobacco smoke! Zero tolerance is the only road to change!
Smokefree means without smoke, not less smoke! We need to encourage
the businesses we patronize to stop selling tobacco products. We need to shop
in businesses that do not sell tobacco products.
Speak Out!
Notify all businesses that allow secondhand smoke exposure that you will not
patronize them until they become smokefree! This means no more nonsmoking sections in
restaurants, no more smoking in bars or clubs.
Speak up!
Speak up for the rights of children! They are the most susceptible to
secondhand smoke exposure. Remind parents that tobacco smoke pollution has been linked to
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, middle ear infections, asthma, bronchitis, and
croup in children. Parents should be reminded that smoking inside a closed
automobile with small children is totally unacceptable!
Sue!
Bring litigation against employers, businesses, municipalities or anyone else
who requires you to breathe toxic tobacco smoke in order to be a part of
public life! Requiring people to breathe smoke is a real form of
discrimination! Smokers can go everywhere if they leave their lighted
cigarettes behind.
Demonstrate!
Ask your local chapters of the Cancer Society, the Lung Association, labor
unions and smokefree organizations to sponsor a national march for workers
rights to a smokefree work environment! It could also be a memorial march for
those who have died from tobacco related diseases!
Be Political!
Ask your political party and politicians to sponsor national legislation to
ban smoking in the workplace nationwide! Make tobacco smoke pollution a
national political issue! Organize local town hall meetings to discuss the problems of secondhand smoke
pollution. Organize letter writing campaigns to local newspapers. Bring the
discussion of secondhand smoke out into the open!
Network!
Ask your friends and family to get involved in the fight for smokefree air!
Send this notice to everyone you know who believes in the right to breathe
clean air!
Change!
End the silence by always demanding a smokefree environment for yourself and
your family. Don’t let smokers and the tobacco industry dictate social policy
any longer. The world belongs to everyone, not just smokers!
Strengthen!
Ask your local government to strengthen it’s existing smokefree laws. You
should be able to go about the business of your life without ever being
exposed to secondhand smoke. This means no smoking in doorways, at sidewalk
cafes, restaurants or anywhere smoke can harm others!
Post!
Carry the round no smoking stickers with you everywhere you go. Post them on
the back of toilet stall doors, in bus shelters and everywhere you think
people need to be reminded smoking is inappropriate! Post signs to educate
about the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure and the
rights of everyone to breathe clean air.
Ask local businesses to post prominent signs that indicate they are totally
smokefree!
Think Positive!
Do not call yourself a non-smoker! Call yourself smokefree or a person who
doesn’t smoke. Non-smoker implies that smoking is normal and you are a non
person!
Only if you believe you can change the world, will you even try! Let’s do it
together!
For more information contact
SMOKEFREEREVOLUTION.org .