The world is not your ashtray

I hate to write two anti-people posts in twenty-four hours, but I just can’t help myself after watching TWO people throw butts out of their car windows this morning on the way to work.

And open letter to the smokers of Ottawa (and elsewhere):

Dear Mr./Ms. Smoker,

I won’t pretend to understand your “habit”. I don’t. I’ll never understand why you fork over your hard-earned money to pad the pockets of über-rich corporate suits who don’t give a flip about you and your health for the privilege of sucking back dozens of chemicals that not only turn your fingers/teeth/skin yellow and make you smell funny NOW, but that will one day KILL YOU, robbing your spouse/kids/grandkids/friends of your love and future happy memories. But not before draining the health care system of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat your various grisly smoking-related diseases that you brought on yourself.

That being said, it’s your choice. It is. Go ahead. Just please don’t do it in the doorway of a public building so that people who are choosing NOT to smoke have to walk through your stinky cloud of carcinogens if they want to go into the library, or the mall, or to work. Oh, and please don’t do it right before you get onto a bus, or into an elevator, or anywhere else that’s enclosed.

If you choose to smoke inside your car, that’s fine. As long as your kids aren’t inside, of course. Because that would be illegal and a form of child abuse. Would you force-feed Johnny a cup of arsenic on the way to school in the morning? Didn’t think so. But if you ARE going to smoke inside your car, please leave the windows rolled up. Because when I’m sitting behind you in traffic, I can smell it wafting in through my air vents. Gross.

And above all, please for the sake of the Earth do not throw your disgusting, used-up butts out of your window and onto the road/grass outside. The world is not your ashtray. There should be one inside your car strictly for that purpose. And what if you’ve got a car without an ashtray because you didn’t pay for that extra feature? Bring a tin can and deal with the filth you created yourself instead of passing it onto someone else.

Thanks and have a great, smoke-filled day!