Minnesota Haze

As the Minnesota House of Representatives considers a bill that would ban smoking statewide (instead of the county and city bans we've been witnessing growing like tobacco in South Carolina), I was reminded of a day in February three or four years ago.

Every year, the Minnesota Private College Council organized a highly calculated and micro-managed lobbying day at the Capitol. Private college students from around the state (the organization is comprised of 17 private colleges and universities around the state and include all the standard Minnesota household names like Carlton, St. John's, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, etc.) would ascend the Capitol's meager hill and start hitting up their representatives and senators for a confirmed vote to continue the Minnesota State Grant funding.

The State Grant was a blessing for people like me who were always strapped for cash. It was really an enormous grant as well and the private colleges couldn't say enough of it as a benefit for students. But as legislation goes in an ever-increasing anti-intellectual society dominated by cutting taxes and funding nation-building projects, these grants were threatened. I dare make a pun here, but our college administrations did not want us to take this funding for granted.

Staring blankly at my Representative Ron Latz, formerly of 44A (and my former home), I realized I was being rude. Latz had just confirmed his support for the State Grant funding. But then he seized the opportunity of having real constituents in his office to prove his worth as a public servant.

He had just asked me what I thought of his very own bill that he introduced. A statewide smoking ban. I laughed. "Why on earth do you care about cigarette smoke. Shouldn't you be focusing your legislative efforts to put more patrol cars on the streets. Smoking may kill, but drunk drivers kill faster," I rocketed back.

He didn't like that. And rightly so. I'm brash for the sake of being brash at times, admittedly. Indeed, I had not considered the health of the individuals who work in bars and restaurants. Regardless, god forbid any new law create more difficult circumstances for a smoker, what might happen--I quit?

But then again, when I step outside to have a smoke during a happy hour, I somehow manage to start talking to a bar tender on break, having a cigarette.