Common Sense? Yah right!

( Photo of a Good Lung)

I first heard the story last evening on the news. A driver in our area was charged because he was smoking in a car with a child present. The whole event happened when a policeman spotted an adult driver smoking while driving and noted that there was child in the car.

The driver received a $155 fine for that smoke.

Since January 21, 2009 any driver in Ontario caught smoking in a car with a child present will be fined.

When the media first carried the story of the new law I remember thinking – so who is going to police this one? How many cops are going to be watching every car on the road for drivers that smoke and are smoking? Will they be watching for the hand with the cigarette in it, the lips with the weed hanging from it, or the familiar window rolled down just a bit? How will they know?

In Port Hope, Ontario, Sgt. Bryant Wood became a cop to be remembered because he was the one that pulled over the offender, Mr. Troy Ashton for his smoking.

Now the reason that the event became an event was that as the cop was giving Mr. Ashton his ticket for smoking, the “child” got out of the vehicle that Mr. Ashton was driving and lit up a cigarette… the “child” was 15 years old.

In Ontario, 15 year old children can smoke all they like. So can 12 year olds and 7 year olds or any year old – of their own free will. BUT it is illegal to purchase or sell tobacco to a person under 19 years of age.

Now something is really goofy about the rules/laws.

If you drive by any high school in Ontario at break time/lunch time you will find masses of teenagers(CHILDREN) clustered in large groups just at the edge of the school property SMOKING! Sometimes groups of teens I have viewed reach upwards to 35 kids clustered together. In winter time the cluster is closer as it is freezing cold – summer time it is further apart.

Recently as I drove by the school at least 15 kid were standing together puffing. That meant there had been at least 15 sources of the cigarettes (or maybe one) that had broken a law.

(Photo of Lung Cancer)

The January 21st law made sense and was sold on the grounds that the innocent child that cannot make a decision about what air they breath. They are forced to inhale with the adult as they puff away. Second hand smoke is the target and it has caused problems for everyone – with the new law someone is trying to help the innocent ones.

But when they choose to not be helped – how then do you help them?

I thought about Officer Wood in Port Hope. Law Makers have added another thing to his list of things to do. While on traffic duty he will watch for irregular and unsafe driving habits, poorly maintained vehicles, speeders, and a whole list of things that he must be aware of ALL THE TIME. I’ll just bet that when January 21st came around my cop friends rolled their eyes and said – “Yah right….”

Sgt. Wood has proved that it can be done…

Now think it through further….
What if the person smoking is 15 years old and the driver isn’t smoking. And in the backseat there is a baby in a car seat…

There are many ways that this whole thing could unroll and cause problems.

No I do not agree that a child should smoke. I do not smoke. I think smoking is STUPID and anyone that does it is STUPID. But they have made a choice and I know that once that decision to smoke has been made – quitting is maybe one of the hardest things that one can attempt.

I work alongside different Government departments. At all seminars and functions they have a break time. They officially list the break as a “Health Break”. When I first saw that on an agenda I nearly died laughing.

At the hospital yesterday there are dozens of people standing outside smoking… along way from the doors of course. The parking lot attendant – along way from the main Emerge Doors was policing that area as well. Two you people(under age) were smoking not far from her booth. She stuck her head out of the small window and yelled, “You can’t smoke there – go way down there by the stop sign!”

Now if they didn’t move – she could call the cops… and have them arrested… or just fined.

What has our world come to? We are trying to legislate “Common Sense”. Something is wrong with the picture.

But with all of this… I pause and consider a powerful thought. What does God face all the time? He sees some really intelligent people making some really STUPID decisions.

Stupid Reigns…
I know an older couple that have chosen to fight all the time. They don’t seem to be happy unless they are screaming at each other.

I know a couple that have broken up because she is plain stupid and wants her own way. She has gone off with another really stupid man that thought the same and left his wife and kids.

I know a man that has chucked his relationships with his wife and kids to pursue a higher purpose.

Bob Pierce founded World Vision the powerful world wide humanitarian ministry that is loved and accepted by almost every country – yet lost his marriage, while his daughter committed suicide and the other one just lived screwed up forever… but told the story of how Dad saved the world and lost everything affecting his whole family.

Common Sense? Yah right!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Source:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/588511
http://whyquit.com/joel/Joel_02_17_smoke_in_lung.html