Earlier this week, Pharr’s City Commission voted to ban indoor smoking in all public places including bars and restaurants and The Monitor’s editorial board ate that shit up.
The Pharr city commission, with a nudge by Pharr Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez, met with business owners that allowed smoking in their bars and ultimately decided that Pharr would join the pussys of Alton, Brownsville, Harlingen, and (ugh) Edinburg as the 5th Valley city to ban smoking indoors outright.
The Monitor’s editorial board, whom I assume are all under the age of 18, wrote one HELL of a take on it.
From the article:
Yes. We know. Smoking is bad. WE KNOW there’s OVERWHELMING research that tells us this. There’s also overwhelming research that says alcohol is terrible and tacos don’t help our obesity problem down here. WE know, but we’re going to do it anyway; and we’re gonna hang out with people who do it anyway.
The measure was passed with restaurant and bar employees having to work an 8 hour shift around smokers in mind. Having been a server myself, you KNOW and understand the risks of being a server, a bartender, etc. Much like a baker who understands that inhaling flour dust all day could potentially harm their lungs, workers in the service industry are more than aware of the environment they work in. Texas is an at-will employment state and “non-smokers” are not a protected class. It’s simple. If you don’t like working around smoke all day, quit and serve somewhere else.
Jesus Christ. Bad eating habits takes more lives in the Valley than smoking EVER will. Why not support a measure that requires all restaurants to provide healthy options or limit “all-you-can-eat” buffets?
What a crock of shit. Did a board of editors REALLY approve that last God damn sentence? Way to chase that Pulitzer, guys. This sounds just like the conclusion to my 4th grade TAKS essay. Get fucking real.
Look, ultimately, this is not social progress the way The Monitor is painting it out to be. Progress would have meant putting this measure either to a public vote or allow business owners to opt-in or out of the measure. Banning a vice that does not negatively impact the cognitive abilities of the user or those around the user is not the answer when everyone involved understands the inherent risks. All it does is violate the trust of the public in making their own informed opinion and action. Unfortunately, the Pharr City Commission and the Monitor Editorial Board were too short sighted to see that.
