The Oklahoman reports that the Norman City Council will be voting on a smoking ban for public parks. Jane Glenn Cannon has the story:
Council members have asked Walker to add a section to the updated version of the ordinance, adding a ban on smoking in public parks. The council will vote on the ordinance as a whole in its June 26 council meeting.
Noble recently passed a ban on smoking in city parks, Walker said, "but as far as I can tell no other city in Oklahoma has passed one.”
Read the rest of the story here.Oklahoma banned smoking in restaurants a few years ago. Do you support extending the ban on smoking to include public parks?
3 comments:
Norman should be leading the way on this. They are a more progressive town that aims to have a healthy community. Banning smoking in public places only makes sense. A couple of years ago they posted signs banning smoking at the splash pad after parents complained of the smokers there. So now, the same smokers just go and smoke a little further away from the splash pad. I hope Norman passes this and that other major Oklahoma cities will too.
No, Oklahoma should not ban smoking in public parks! This country was founded on individual liberty. I am tired of big government liberals using the government as a nanny state to ban behaviors they don't like. A person should have self-ownership, which includes the freedom to live an unhealthy life. Smoking outdoors does not harm anyone! Smoking outdoors will cause the wind (in case you haven't noticed, Oklahoma has a lot of it) to blow the smoke away pretty quickly. It's time for the government to stop finding ways to socially engineer people and start finding ways to protect liberty.
As someone who has been a children's performer at outdoor/Park events for 10 years and who has only recently been diagnosed with an adult onset of cigarette triggered Asthma I am all for the banning of smoking in the parks. I have found that my career has suffered because I cannot step foot outside without a smoker's smoke triggering severe attacks.
This last weekend at the Norman Medieval Fair in Reeves Park I was removed from my area (where my company performs the Mermaids for the little kids)by the medical staff because smokers in the park refused to pay attention to the No Smoking signs and ordinances for the playground area. When asked to move they simply told us to take our signs and put them in a rather unfriendly place on our persons and proceeded to cuss my help staff out.
The second day I was told that I needed to learn to deal with it and that I should get used to almost dying each time I am exposed to it and stop breathing.
I find it very unfair that because I developed a disease (thanks to years of living with family that smoked) my career and livelihood are taken from me so easily. Because I have Asthma I can't even walk into a store without having to cover my nose and mouth and run to get past smokers before they set me into an attack that stops my breathing.
I also feel for the little children with and without Asthma who are subjected to the smoke at parks. They cannot help themselves if we won't help them. It is not fair to subject those of us with this disease or the children to it.
For the sake of the children and those who cannot help it and do not want to die for someone else's addiction I support it.
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