Defeat of Prop. 188

The Prop. 188 votes are in. David has beaten Goliath. Campaign costs for both sides have been tallied. Or have they? Prop. 188, which pretended to be for tough no-smoking laws, was a Trojan horse initiative that should never have been on the ballot. Its full cost may never be known. But let me try to put a human face on it. In the midst of my feelings of triumph over the sound beating of Prop. 188 I received a phone call.

My friend, who smoked for 50 years, has lung cancer. He quit smoking 10 years ago when he was diagnosed with emphysema. I thought of the months he spent with me campaigning against Prop. 188. He had brought the original Philip Morris petition to my attention. He had signed that infamous mailing, then invited his neighbors to add their names. But they read the fine print: Sponsored by Philip Morris. Unlike thousands of other duped Californians, my friend was spared the vexation of having helped put Prop. 188 on the ballot. From then on he helped spread the word to defeat it.

Pro-188 funds, to the tune of over $18 million, came from the tobacco industry’s deep pockets. In letters to retailers and stockholders, they stated that its passage will help them all profit financially.

No-on-188 funds came from the American Cancer Society and the Heart and Lung associations., which donated about $600,000. Health education foundations and other groups donated around $4 million. This was much-needed money that, without a Prop. 188 battle, would have been spent helping people with projects such as cancer research and tobacco education for young people.

And what of those thousands of hours spent by their volunteers campaigning against 188? This was a cost too. That time could have been spent doing the things volunteers usually do--from driving a cancer patient to therapy to teaching a group of students to avoid peer pressure about smoking. Or perhaps my friend and other volunteers would simply have spent more time with their families, instead of waving flyers in supermarket parking lots or marching with a No-on-188 sign at busy intersections.

Californians won this battle, but the rest of America be forewarned. You will be put through the same ordeal by the tobacco industry in the name of profit. Whatever name it goes by, any petition sponsored with tobacco industry money should be made to put its name alongside it--in direct proportion to the amounts donated.

WINIFRED MEISER

Thousand Oaks