Medway Messenger 7th November 2003

“Got a spare fag, mate?”

The request came from a bunch of school kids in Gillingham Park. They looked all of about thirteen years old.

“No,” I said, “I don’t smoke, and I never have done.”

“Oh yeah,” they replied, in a tone that told me to pull the other one.

“No, I really have never smoked. Have you ever watched someone die of cancer?” I asked. “Because I have.”

“I reckon getting cancer would be fun,” said one of the imbeciles.

“You must be sick,” I said, and walked off with my dog, unable to digest what I’d just heard.

I could almost come to terms with the moronic comments about cancer on the grounds that teenagers think they are indestructible. But just what kind of a society do we have in Medway where kids can’t believe that someone has never smoked?

Smoking seems to be so much a part of life here. It was one of the first things I noticed when I moved here from Hertfordshire in 1997. You couldn’t move on the streets without inhaling secondary smoke.

I was pleased a few months ago when the Pentagon Centre in Chatham was made a no-smoking zone. But you still see people with a flagrant disregard for others in there puffing away. I won’t use the coffee shop by Boot’s and WH Smith’s, because too many customers there have no thought for others.

I’ve become angrier about this since becoming a parent (and I was pretty militant about it before!). How many pregnant women do we witness, not caring for the health of their unborn child by smoking? How many parents of young children bring their kids up in a blue nicotine haze?

I know as a Christian that you can’t force people to change. Change needs to come from the heart, and it needs the power of God to be effective. But in recent times we have seen on the news the introduction of smoking bans in public places in New York and Ireland. There are two reasons why I would support such a move in this country.

Firstly, my body isn’t mine to do with as I please. God gave it to me, and I have a responsibility to use his wonderful creation well and not abuse it (which is what smoking and many other habits do).

Secondly, the Bible calls us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Inflicting our smoking on others is the very opposite of this. My heart doesn’t exactly bleed when smokers complain they are being increasingly treated like lepers in our society. In truth their habit treats the rest of us like lepers.

I say to the local and national politicians: bring on the smoking ban! 

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.