A Mommy Story

Well, the election is now over, and the results are (mostly) in. I’m fairly happy with most of the results, I think. It should be exciting to see what gets done in government in the next two years with a changing of the guard. And Rumsfeld resigning? I didn’t see that coming, but I can’t say I’m sad to see him go. It was a nice added surprise, like putting on an old pair of jeans and finding a $10 in the pocket.

Here in Ohio, even though the weather was awful, turnout seemed to be good. We now have a new governor that I like (which hasn’t happened in awhile here). But for me, even though the political office races were interesting to watch, I was more interested in the issues we voted on.

Issue 2 passed, meaning we’re going to see a significant raise in the minimum wage here in Ohio. I see this as a very good thing, considering that the current minimum wage is not a living wage, even if both adults in the family are working. Did you ever watch 30 Days? The very first episode featured Morgan and his girlfriend coming to Columbus, OH to try living on minimum wage for 30 days. The result was a disaster, and not only did they leave town at the end of the month in debt, but they also were suffering from health problems they couldn’t afford to fix.

Issue 3 failed, and I saw that coming. While it would have been nice to have state scholarships available to help offset the costs of college, funding it through slot machines at race tracks probably wasn’t the best way to accomplish it. I’m curious to see the fate of the racetracks now – they were hoping this issue would bail them out of the financial troubles they’re currently in. My hometown has one of the largest racing horse farms in the state (not racing on horseback – buggy racing), and the farm may be selling more horses for dog food than for racing soon.

But most important to me were issue 4 and issue 5. Issue 4 was known as the “smoke less” issue, and tried to bring a constitutional amendment banning smoking in public buildings, unless they are on the enormous list of exceptions, like restaurants, bars, clubs, bowling alleys, etc. Basically I think it was pretty much limited to government buildings. Also, it was designed to trump all other smoking bans, so if it had passed, Columbus would once again have smoking allowed in restaurants. Had it passed, it also would have trumped issue 5.

Issue 5, known as “smoke free” was a flat out statewide ban on smoking in public areas, including restaurants, bars, and clubs. There are few exceptions to this issue, with those exceptions being private clubs (membership only) and private homes.

It should come as no surprise that the backers of issue 4 were bar owners and tobacco companies, while the backers of issue 5 were waitresses and health care companies. Thankfully, issue 4 failed by a large margin, and issue 5 passed.

I should explain why this makes me so happy: I’m allergic to smoke. Not the anaphylactic shock kind of allergic – more like the swollen eyes, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, worst-cold-ever type of allergic. Being around smoke in an enclosed area for even thirty minutes will have me feeling miserable the next day. And smoking areas don’t help, since we all know the smoke always migrates to the non-smoking section. As I’m sure you can guess, I was a lousy club-goer as a college student.

As a child, with two aunts who smoked and thought I was “faking it”, family gatherings were torture. I’d wheeze and cough around them, begging to be allowed to go elsewhere, and they’d tell me to stop being so dramatic. Thankfully, one of my aunts has quit smoking after developing one too many serious lung infections as a result of her smoking. She now understands how I felt.

I don’t think smokers are bad people, but I think smoking is a bad habit. Most habits don’t hurt other people, but this one can drastically affect the health of those around you. If you want to do that to yourself, fine. But I don’t deserve to suffer in public, or be unable to go out to normal places, like a restaurant, because of your bad habit. And should my children inherit my allergy, I want them to be able to go out in public without worrying if they will be spending the next day in bed from an allergic reaction to smoke.

So yeah, I’m a little happy about issue 5 passing.

How were the issues where you live?