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Big Tobacco should stop exploiting youth

Prior to the Freedom to Breathe Act of Oct. 1, 2007, I sent a pair of letters to every tobacco supplier in Minnesota and every vendor in Otter Tail County. Here are the following excerpts:

“People say they can recall where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. I remember. And when the horrifying scenes of 9/11 were broadcast, I was stunned.

But the day I woke to the lifeless body of my son will always remain the most awful day. Isaac was only 6 weeks old when he died. They said it was due to Sudden infant Death Syndrome.

Imagine the shock after finding these words: “By inhaling the poisonous tobacco, effluvia, which is thrown from the lungs and the pores of the skin, the system of the infant is filled with the poison. While it acts upon some as a slow poison and affects the brain, heart and liver, and lungs, and they waste away and fade gradually, upon others it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, fits, paralysis, palsy, and sudden death.” (This was published in 1867).

“My son cried because his sensitive lungs were subjected to the toxic air. All the while I was oblivious to the fact I was producing a lethal environment. He finally succumbed to a filthy practice he never chose.”

“Dear vendor, it’s not too late to stop what you’re doing. You can redeem the time, but only by changing your course. Your future crop will not be temporal materials… and your harvest will be seen in the healthy faces of living, breathing children. But it’s not enough to eradicate tobacco.

There’s a need to fill the vacancy with time and talents to facilitate hope and healing. Please restore integrity and health to our home of the brave. Help our country to be free from the chains of vice. Thank you.”

The tobacco industry has infiltrated every hamlet and enterprise in America for over 100 years. The irony of its longevity is illustrated in the abbreviated lives of countless victims. Our practical sympathies belong to something much higher than the foul influence of vice. Let us crush the supply of that detestable plague by shunning the demand.

Any truly worthy endeavor has never relied upon the ill-gotten gains of desperate pleasures. It would be far better to stop exploiting the youth than to continue in pretentious addictions.