Take a deep breath

Regarding “Deep breaths: Smoking pollution in Tel Aviv,” December 4 (JPost.com): Speaking from the perspective of a former smoker who routinely lit his first cigarette of the week from the flickering flame of a havdalah candle and ditched his final one while walking to synagogue on Friday, I urge the pseudonym Ashley Flunger to take a step or two back and redirect her anger and frustration to where it just might do some good.

She’s quite right, of course. Smokers can be more than a little intolerant toward the sensitivity of others and few think twice about the potential their habit has for polluting the environment (I like to think I was among those that did).

What Flunger fails to acknowledge, however, is that smoking is perfectly legal, socially acceptable activity. Tobacco products are openly sold in kiosks and supermarkets and cigarettes are found in vending machines.

And if smoking creates an undue burden on our heath care system, well, that needs to be dealt with legislatively. But until a law comes out saying smoking is a criminal offense, smokers are entitled to considerations, just as non-smokers are.

Worth noting is that more than a few of those elected or appointed to enact, implement and enforce smoking restrictions are themselves smokers; cats and saucers of milk, you know.

And I certainly hope that Flunger does not expect the religious establishment to take a more aggressive role. There have been, over the last several decades, sharply worded warnings from influential rabbis against smoking, and in some cases the habit has been expressly forbidden. Which, it would seem, are for the most part ignored.

The trouble, unfortunately, is that human beings are governed by other human beings and not angels, and finding mutually acceptable compromises is not often easy. And where smoking is concerned, the give and take is complicated by an all-ornothing attitude by those standing on both sides of the fence. Too many smokers regard the current limitations on smoking as an infringement of their civil liberties, while non-smokers have adopted a militant approach toward the dangers of second hand smoke. Early education, responsible lobbying, and grass roots effort to change cultural mindsets are the answers, self-righteous indignation from both sides are not.

BARRY NEWMAN Ginot Shomron