Smoking causes cancer. Secondhand smoke causes cancer. I hate smoking, and I constantly criticize my friends who smoke cancer sticks, because it may eventually kill them, and it makes everything and everyone around them stink.

I agree with having some smoking restrictions. Particularly, an airline restriction would be nice, because the passenger cabin is a closed space, so there is no way to avoid the smoke if another person lights up. I also agree with office building restrictions, because it affects other people, and smoking is not part of the job.

However, as much as I hate it when my friends smoke, they are adults. They have the right to make the decision to smoke, and it is not the government’s place to tell them they cannot smoke at a bar. When I go to the bars Tuesday night or Saturday night, it is my choice to go to the bar. I go out because I enjoy the drink specials, I enjoy the atmosphere and I enjoy spending time with my friends.

I make the choice to go to the bars. I make this choice knowing I will be around smokers, and my clothes will likely stink at the end of the night.

But, I make the choice. I’m not forced into this environment. If I just wanted to drink, it would not be difficult to go to a liquor store. If I wanted to spend time with friends, there are always a few sheep that do not go out.

I have also worked in a bar. Again, I made the choice to work in that bar knowing people would be smoking. No one forced me to work there, certainly not the government. The $5.25 an hour I was being paid didn’t force me to work at the bar.

Students do not need City Council members like Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, or Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, making our health decisions. Jarrell says he is in favor of a smoking ban because he has seen the reports on secondhand smoke. He isn’t a doctor, and he wasn’t elected to be my doctor or my conscious.

In fact, Jarrell and Powell were elected by students to represent students. If Jarrell was doing this for students who work at bars, why didn’t we see any of these students at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting when the issue was supposed to be decided?

Yet, for Jarrell and Powell, this is only one of many issues where they have not represented students’ best interests. Last year’s State Street redesign comes to mind as another issue where they ignored what their constituents desired.

Government is supposed to help society run in an orderly fashion, not over-regulate every aspect of life. Government should be protecting small-business owners and should be encouraging people to run small businesses, not trying to cripple them through over-regulation.

Allowing government intervention only leads to more government interference. It briefly reached epidemic proportions in Montgomery County in Maryland this summer.

Before reversing its decision because of intense political pressure, the County Board voted to ban smoking in private homes. Under the law, a person could be fined up to $750 for each time a neighbor complained about smelling tobacco smoke coming from a person’s home.

I may find smoking unattractive, and I may hate the smell it leaves, but this is not an issue about personal feelings. This is about government overstepping its bounds and taking away individual choice.

Montgomery County is the closest we have come to that Orwellian “Big Brother” society we fear, but the Madison City Council’s desire to over-regulate is pushing us in a similar direction.

However, we thankfully live in a country that believes in democracy. When our elected officials attempt to intrude on our lives we can vote them out of office.

Maybe “our” city representatives will keep this in mind when the smoking ban comes to a vote at the next City Council meeting. If they do not, students will give these elected officials plenty of time to consider their decision after the next City Council election.

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. He is in Washington, D.C. this fall for an internship.