Teen Smoker

Recently, while stuck in traffic on the freeway, I witnessed an all too common sight. The teenage boy in the car next to me lit up a cigarette and proceeded to cough a little. When the smoke inside the car became more than he could bear, he rolled down the window and began holding the cigarette outside the car. He didn’t see any incongruity in bringing the offending cigarette back into the car so he could fill his lungs with the same smoke he was trying to avoid. I will never know if he will be one of the millions who will be afflicted with tobacco-related cancer, and perhaps die from it, after causing all of us to help pay for his medical care, but smoking at his age almost assures it.

While most of these people have been banished to smoke outside our workplaces, they still don’t seem to get the message. Do you suppose there would be any support for a national movement to brand a scarlet letter “S” on their foreheads so that we could all see them coming? The “S,” of course, would stand for “Stupid.”

MICHAEL C. SOLNER

Encino