As a business owner and a smoker I collected signatures and talked to business owners about this ordinance.
The Alliance for Smoke Free Air would like you, the public, to believe the 1,428 people and 123 businesses that signed our petition and business surveys didn't know, weren't educated enough, to know what they were signing. Excuse me? Because we believe in everyone's right to choose we are uneducated? I don't think so.
We all know that smoking is not healthy. We all hope that future generations don't smoke. We also hope they exercise, don't drink, don't use drugs and watch their weight. But just like my generation, they will have the freedom to choose for themselves I hope.
As long as we have councilmembers like Doug, Rich and John, they will have these rights. You gentlemen have my vote and the votes of many other folks that think like I do.
Also, while I'm here, Dr. Marley should be ashamed of himself for the comment he made during his testimony before the City Council: "These studies are not done by somebody sitting on a bar stool. They're done by very, very credible institutions."
What Dr. Marley didn't say is that his daughter, who lives in Anchorage, is being paid along with Dan Boone to select statistics that suit their agenda, most of which are from the early 1990s. How involved would they be if Ms. Marley had a job working in some other industry?
Our statistics came from people on bar stools? No, they came from groups like the World Health Organization. Something else Dr. Marley should consider is that when there's a fund-raising event for a charity or a victim of disaster or major medical problem, they don't go to Dr. Marley's office to hold a fund-raiser. They go to those generous people sitting on those bar stools and to those "uninformed" business owners for help and auction items.
So again, thank you councilmembers, thank you the 1,428 people who signed our petition, and thank you those businesses that helped us through our surveys and by collecting signatures.
Cece Grevemberg owns Cece's Kitchen.
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