Letters 1/19/06

Jan. 18, 2006

Cough up protection
Since December 8, all workers and residents in the state of Washington have enjoyed 100% smokefree indoor workplaces and public places. The voters there overwhelmingly approved the measure recently, with 64 percent favoring making all indoor workplaces and public places throughout the state completely smokefree, including restaurants, bars, bingo parlors, and non-tribal casinos.
By doing so, Washington joins Florida, Delaware, New York, California, Rhode Island, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Massachusetts as states providing smokefree air in all indoor workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars. And Ireland and Norway have banned workplace smoking nation-wide, even in all the infamous Irish pubs!
Unfortunately, Michigan’s citizens still lack such protection, despite the well-documented health hazards associated with second-hand tobacco smoke, even in small doses.
Thankfully, the boards of commissioners in Emmet, Antrim, and Otsego counties recently did their part toward protecting us from second-hand smoke, by recently approving a regulation that requires most workplaces to be smokefree. Several other Michigan counties have taken similar measures.
Sadly, bars and restaurants were not able to be included, because the powerful tobacco lobby successfully convinced the Michigan legislature to prohibit a smoking ban in these places. Nevertheless, the trend is clear – second-hand smoke is unhealthy, and people are demanding the same protections from it that they presently enjoy from arsenic and asbestos, which are also Group A carcinogens, known to cause cancer in humans.
I hope that Michigan is not the last state in the nation to protect our right to breathe clean, healthy air in all indoor workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars.

Kenyon Stebbins • Harbor Springs

Bad policy ruins holiday
I am a former Boyne City business owner and very interested in how retail and restaurant establishments handle gift certificates.
I believe a gift certificate is a gift from one loved-one to another. The person leaves money at the establishment for the other person. The person can come in and buy whatever he or she wants. The money is only held by the establishment, like a bank. The money should be thought of as cash.
I do not believe the establishment should put limits on the gift certificate. I hope business owners do not feel a gift certificate is a hardship.
My young nephew thought he was going to treat me to New Years Eve dinner by buying a gift certificate on Dec. 27, 2005 at Garretts at One Water Street in Boyne City. He wanted me to have a good time on him, a great Christmas gift. He is now a young professor after many years of school.
Garretts in Boyne City would not accept the gift certificate, saying New Year‘s Eve was a special night and they could not accept it. I do not believe they told him that on Dec 27. They took a fun-loving idea and turned it into a sad event.
To all retailers, please change your thoughts on gift certificates. Make life an event to be enjoyed.

Harriett Hess • Boyne City


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