Some say that this nationwide ban on smoking would violate the tenth amendment to the Constitution that states:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to
the people."
Or in other words, if there is a right not specified in the Constitution, then the states get to decide if the right, or action, is allowed in its jurisdiction. Because the Constitution does not say anything about banning smoking in public places, or even banning something that would be hazardous to not only your's but someone else's health, then this issue must be settled by each state or local county.
Not only are these two candidates in support of the smoking ban issue, the are interested in increasing funding for research for cancer so that more money is spent to prevent the disease than in curing or treating it. Also, as for these healthy candidates, they have both encountered and destroyed cancer within their own families. Huckabee's wife was struck with a tumor on her spine deemed inoperable, and Brownback has overcome melanoma. But now back to the main point of this article, the importance of funding for cancer research. This research will help in the public smoking issue. To find out more information on this topic you can visit USA Today, the Des Moines Register, and AOL News.
4 comments:
I agree that each state should have the right to make this decision on their own since it is not stated in the constitution specifically, and I also believe each state should decide to ban smoking in public places. There is no reason that innocent people who choose not to smoke should still be exposed to the hazards of smoking. It is ones own choice to smoke, but if you do decide to smoke you should respect others decisions not to smoke and therefore not smoke in public places where others are exposed to the consequences of smoking.
I understand that by law and the Constitution that each state has to make their own decision about smoking but honestly with smoking being such a serious health issue, I believe the government should be able to step in. And if the government formally make every state ban smoking but maybe making as many bills and legislation that will limit the amount of smoking that can be done in public areas. But in your post you mentioned what Brownback was going to do if he was elected president, what about the other candidate? What did Mike Huckabee have to say about the issue and what he was going to do about smoking in public areas?
Lastly, in the last paragraph of you blog you mentioned that both candidates had either themselves or family members who had suffered from serious diseases but you didn't really expand too much on them. Do you think you could explain more about how smoke and secondhand smoke could possibly be a contributor of these various diseases and how you were relating in to your blog?
In response to nicole:
I agree with you in that if people do choose to smoke, they should not do it around those who choose not to. Courtesy is the best policy in this aspect. So smokers, please be courteous to us non-smokers and think first about blowing that smoke right in our faces.
In response to fashionable tree hugger:
The government would like to step in, but they think there would be too many people who would completely disagree with their situation. The government can interfere with something that is dangerous to the health of citizen's so why haven't they done this already? It is a complicated issue because they have to think about the economy of the United States and a lot of the economy depends on the tobacco industry. In response to your question about what would Huckabee do, I stated that in the second paragraph, the first sentence. This states that Huckabee would support a nationwide ban on public smoking and try to get this accomplished. The fact in what kind of cancer is not important, just the fact that both of these candidates have been faced with devastating news of cancer is the point. They have experienced the plague of cancer and are not just coming from a blank position where they don't know anything about cancer. This article was mainly about the different stand points of politicians on the public smoking ban and what candidates are doing to show support for the ban.
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