Smoking Ban Infringes on Personal Freedoms

Re “Council Gives Initial OK to a Partial Ban on Smoking in Parks,” Dec. 15: Now I’ve heard everything. A smoking ban in outdoor parks! Perhaps I wasn’t paying close attention, but when were politicians given permission to legislate every facet of our lives? In this instance the Los Angeles City Council is overstepping not only its authority but common sense as well. And people sympathetic to this infringement of our civil liberties should wonder what aspect of their own lives might be next for legislative review.

Joyce Goetz

Westlake Village

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“ ‘They are a dictatorship,’ ” said Louis Rosenberg of Woodland Hills, president of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Californians for Smokers Rights.” Rosenberg needs to understand that he is part of a very small minority that gets smaller every day. As adults and teens realize the dangers of tobacco smoke they are stopping this life-depleting habit and supporting changes. Those who do not, and choose to fight these changes, are sadly out of step with reality.

The L.A. City Council supported the wishes of the majority who wish to, first and foremost, protect children from the same fate as the millions who have died from smoking-related diseases over the years. I thank the council for its courage to do the right thing.

Jacque Petterson

Santa Clarita

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Now that smoking is all but banned in parks to save our children from bad examples, maybe the City Council would be wise to consider banning obese people. They’re bad examples too. Such a move would certainly be unfair and challenged by various rights groups as it raises a groundswell of public protest. But let’s look at the logic--and the statistics.

According to The Times, although 50,000 people die nationwide each year from illnesses associated with secondhand smoke (albeit almost all from smoke in enclosed areas), we now find that deaths related to obesity have reached 300,000 per year (Dec. 14). It seems to me that seeing people of all sizes, shapes, colors and, heavens, even smokers happily getting along in the parks is a wonderful influence on children.

Lois Willows

Beverly Hills