Letters light up beach smoking
Regarding Cory Jasmin’s letter of April 18, 2012: What a fantastic idea to ban smoking on the beaches. This great thought is simply incomplete as written. Yes, banning is the answer; it will interface with many other great plans.
Also needed is banning noise, screaming and crying kids and adults, rock concerts, loud stereos in the automobiles going to or coming from the beaches, loud tail pipes, throwing Frisbees, balls, or anything else that could injure a bystander or any noisemaking device which this ban would include musical instruments, nonmusical instruments used to make a noise, even the mouth as it is the worst of offenders at making noise.
As for booze on the beach I guess it’s now legal on beaches? Perhaps the rule of law does not cover drinking in public on the beach? How about digging holes in the sand, does this not become a safety issue? Someone could twist an ankle and sue the digger and the city. Perhaps even an ecology problem as the digger is changing the natural shape of the beach.
How about banning skinny people as they don’t project a healthy image of beachgoers. Or banning overweight people taking more than their fair share of the available sand. Ah, the biggie — the smell, ban perfume, ban dirty diapers, passing gas, food that has smell, French fries and hamburgers, and the most offensive of all: onions being cooked or having been cooked.
Ah the list goes on forever. I don’t like this or that, so ban it; remember prohibition? It proved to be utterly stupid, so stupid in fact even the congress noticed! Now that’s a genuine walking on water miracle. Be very careful with this banning stupidity, as you may be on the list that grows larger each time someone opens their mouth.
ANNE MOSS, Coeur d’Alene
To Cory Jasmin: First off I am not a smoker. However, to impose a ban on a personal freedom at a local beach (or anywhere else) is not the best idea. What if somewhere down the road someone found whatever you enjoy to do is disagreeable to them?
I have children and frequent those areas and understand your concerns, but think that you are attempting to change things for your own personal gain. This kind of stuff is why eventually no one will be able to do anything without fear of punishment or a sense of exclusion. You could always take a common sense approach and consider the wants/needs of all and find a way to balance them so that everyone is able to enjoy our great town. Quit trying to make Coeur d’Alene a place like all those that so many have left.
KEVIN GROAT, Coeur d’Alene
As summer approaches, I look forward to taking my children to the great beaches we have in the area. One thing, however, I am not looking forward to is smelling smoke as I lay on my towel, and having my 3-year-old build sandcastles with cigarette butts. It seems that many smokers feel the need to smoke when they are sun-bathing, and then do not consider it littering to bury their butts in the sand. They don’t seem to realize that although we are outdoors, they are causing the entire area to be permeated with the smell, and the butts are dug up by children hoping to establish a monarchy in their bit of sand.
The worst offenders are at the beaches on the way to Higgens Point. The alcohol consumption and the small area of the beaches make it almost unpleasant to take children.
I hope the city of Coeur d’Alene considers a ban on smoking on public beaches, as it would greatly increase the enjoyment for all citizens.
CORY JASMIN, Hayden