the Informer

Sitting in my Village apartment one late night, the wonderful scent of pot and cigarette smoke drifts up through the open window, laying a fog of ill smelling smoke in my living room.

I am beginning to wonder where common courtesy has gone. As much as I understand the desire for people to smoke, I am increasingly angered at being affected by it.

While the choice to smoke is one’s own choice, don’t let it affect others.

According to studies by the American Cancer Society, an estimated 3,400 cases of lung cancer deaths result from breathing in secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke has also been linking to many other breathing problems and heart disease in non-smokers.

Last year as a freshman living in Hawk Hall, I faced some of the same issues regarding right outside the front door.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not an active advocate of creating a completely non-smoking campus. I know this is completely unreasonable.  However, smokers need to consider more about whom they are affecting.

Walking to classes and being stuck behind someone smoking, the wind drifting all of it in my face, is unwanted. If you are making the decision to smoke, do it somewhere that won’t affect others. I choose not to smoke because I do not want the health hazards and breathing in the secondhand smoke is giving me exactly what I do not want.

Sitting right outside the doors of the Village Apartments and blocking people’s doors, forcing them to walk through a cloud of smoke, is unreasonable. It frustrates me. No matter what anyone wants to claim, those of us living there do not appreciate the smoke stench.

As I recognize and appreciate the student movement occurring regarding smoking around Harry Jack Gray, it needs to expand and it needs to call on the smokers.

It is up to the smokers to provide the respect to other students. Nothing will happen if those smoking are not engaged enough to make a difference.

I’d like to see the smokers outside of my apartment rethink their decision to smoke at the doorways. I am going to make you move so I can at least get to my door. Why go through all the hassle when you could walk away a few feet and not be bothered at all?

There are plenty of open spaces on campus, both the residential and academic sides, where smoking would not bother other students. Us non-smokers realize and understand that you need to smoke. We get it.

However, call on common courtesy. Think before you light up and consider who is around you. Think that your smoke, whether pot or cigarette, is coming up through others’ windows and people will not appreciate it. Search out those places where the risks of secondhand smoke will not be an issue. Help us prove that we do not need a non-smoking campus.

We just need some respect.