Audrey Silk's Speech at the Rally

- 26 August 2002

Let`s call Bloomberg`s plot what it really is - The SMOKER-Free City Act.

Many nonsmokers, different from the anti-smokers, are behind us because they recognize these extremist measures for what they really are - An attack on freedom by our own government and where it could lead next.

Anti-smokers are waging a civil war against their fellow citizens. The anti-smoker crusaders publicly spew their hate of an industry to disguise what has turned into their attack on fellow folk.

We are NOT the tobacco industry. We are 30% of NYC residents. This is persecution by government against a segment of society freely choosing to engage in legal behavior and the bar and restaurant owners who want to serve us.

This political action has nothing to do with protecting the health of others. Dismissing high-tech ventilation as a solution and banning smoking outdoors in a vehicle exhaust filled city proves it`s about getting rid of the smokers, not the smoke.

Further proof is the most recent news that Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties have met with our city leaders to implement a wide-spread ban. Our elected officials have colluded against one third of the people. To protect others?? NO! So that smokers will not have any refuge and will stop smoking out of frustration. This is evidenced by Nassau County Legislator Corbin`s statement:

"If you`re downstate you`re not going to be able to smoke anywhere but in your closet. If we stop the places in which you can smoke, the smokers may not find it appealing to smoke."

How dare they use their power to impose their personal biases on others and legislate behavior that is legal.

Our founding fathers assured us we will never get this kind of brutal coercive government. Their vision is under siege. Abuse of power is threatening ALL of us.

When the anti-smokers ask where in the Constitution it says we have the "right" to smoke, ask them where the rights they`re claiming are enumerated. They`re not. They insist the Constitution was written in their favor. It`s not. ALL the people have the right to pursue happiness and that`s about as much as they can claim ownership to when referring to the Constitution, as do we.

The anti-smokers call us selfish. WE are not the ones asking that the entire city accommodate ONLY us. They want it 100% their way when there is room for compromise. Who are the selfish ones?

The anti-smokers use the adage "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins." Saying that, in their defense to end smoking in bars, is like saying that to end fighting in a boxing ring. Stay out of places where you know "fists are being swung" and you won`t get hit. Any child understands that.

The owners and the owners only, of PRIVATE establishments, must be allowed to decide for themselves how best to serve their customers - whether to allow or ban smoking. And employees and customers can use common sense in whether to enter one or the other.

To turn a phrase: The right to be intolerant ends where our civil liberties begin.

That includes junk science about smoke from my cigarette and exploiting workers and individuals who haven`t asked for help to promote their self-righteous, sanctimonious and puritanical cleansing of smokers from this great city.

We must resist the extremists.

Thomas Jefferson said this: "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that the will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

Millions who have wanted to, have stopped smoking without government intrusion. Millions more freely choose to continue. The choice to use a legal product is normal. Tyranny in America is the aberration.

This is civil war.