Editor's Box

Testing Unfair

Editor's Box

Attention smokers: Show a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T please!

Rebecca Alford-assistant editor How do you feel when you walk out the double-doors at the Rome Georgia Highlands College campus only to be surrounded by a suffocating cloud of cigarette smoke?

Well, I don't know about you, but I think that it is pointless and disrespectful. We all pay tuition here, whether we smoke or not, and it just so happens that the smoke-free students do not want to be greeted by the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke every time they walk out of a building.

A lot of college students do smoke, so I'm not going to be the one to try to fight them all and get everyone to quit smoking. One, there is no way one person such as myself can get everyone on campus to stop smoking. And two, there is no way anyone or any number of people can get every person that smokes to stop.

Too many people smoke for too many reasons to even bother to try and get them all to stop, even though it would be nice, especially considering some of the health effects related to smoking.

Personally, I don't smoke; I don't see where any joy can come from inhaling smoke into my lungs. So I've never tried smoking and never will. However, just because it's not my thing doesn't mean that I'm going to criticize and never communicate with people that do smoke. Smoking is their thing.

Still, I do not understand why the smoking people must crowd the doorways and blow smoke on all the non-smokers.

Once again I'm not saying you can't smoke at all or you shouldn't be able to smoke on campus. I'm simply saying have some respect for those of us who choose not to smoke. We (the non-smokers) respect your decision to smoke, and you (the smokers) should respect our decision not to and allow us our fresh air.

Just backing away a couple of feet from the doors would be sufficient. At least that would give me, along with the other smoke-free students, a chance to breathe fresh air instead of smoke as soon as we step out of the doors.