My First Political Act, as a 3-Year-Old: Nonsmokers’ Rights

I rather hoped we’d won the clean air vs. smokers fight. There’s certainly been huge improvement, but it crops up all over the place.

We were just in Panama, and were greeted at the airport with an optimistic sign announcing that it’s a smoke-free country. Not a reality, but I must say smoking was a very small inconvenience there. Far, far worse in many other countries I’ve visited.

One of the things I’m really proud of in my life is that I initiated the first nonsmokers’ rights regs in Northampton, Massachusetts, back in 1983. We made restaurants set aside 25% of seating area for nonsmokers, and within a few years, not only had most restaurants gone nonsmoking, but a whole lot more had opened and they were drawing from a 50 mile radius–because once they didn’t have to gag on other people’s smoke, a whole lot more people started going out to eat! Actually, the very first bit of activism that I can remember engaging in, at age THREE (yes really), was taking cigarettes off the coffee table and breaking them in half, during a party my parents were throwing. It wasn’t out of malice but out of a very clear sense of self-protection.

From there came a lifetime of social and environmental activism. I just turned 58 this week, so I’ve been at it for 55 years! It;s nice to be able to claim a few victories, one of which was that nonsmoking law more than 30 years ago.