Rodriguez on Smoking Ban

I have always admired the writing of Richard Rodriguez. But I am sad that he uses tobacco as a metaphor for misplaced priorities (Opinion, May 22).

I used to try to write and think as broadly and holistically as Rodriguez. But after I became ill and disabled because of cigarette smoke in my workplace, I became a one-issue person. I truly regret that I have had to become so narrowly focused.

But I have come to understand that all of my adult life I have had to separate myself from the community. I was born with asthma and could not be in any location where people were smoking, whether it was in a university hallway, in a workplace, or simply in a place to have a good time. My son also has asthma and discovered in his first full-time job after graduating from college that he too cannot work or play in an environment where there is secondhand smoke.

Ten percent of the population have asthma and other lung diseases. Our segregation from the community because of secondhand smoke should be labeled what it is, a denial of civil rights. For us, tobacco smoke is a weapon as lethal as the weapons used in a drive-by shooting. But it is not as visible it doesn’t make headlines.

A smoking ban is not a futile attempt to avoid the inevitable death. It is a long overdue restoration of the civil rights of persons with respiratory disabilities. I do not hate the people who smoke. Certainly I cannot hate my parents, who both died prematurely of smoking-related illnesses. They smoked while I struggled to breathe and could not see the connection.

Rodriguez and I both empathize with the people trapped in this sad addiction. We cannot control much in this life, but Los Angeles can begin to become the brighter and happier place that Rodriguez yearns for if the air is cleared in nightclubs and places where young people go to have a good time. My son says amen to that.

ESTHER SCHILLER, Co-Director

Smokefree Air for Everyone

Newbury Park

* Rodriguez’ essay did my heart good. After 24 years in Los Angeles, having been mugged, burglarized, rear-ended three times, overcome by heat and smog in all seasons, no longer able to go out for a leisurely meal where I could linger over coffee and a cigarette (need I mention riots, floods, fires, earthquakes), I am determined to escape to someplace where I can at least ease the strain with a smoke. I’m outta here--back to New York City.

ARLENE BEER

Tarzana