News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Petition: Thank You For Not Smoking (At Least Outdoors, in Reston)

imgres-1.jpegA fancy "on-line" petition is being circulated asking the Reston Association Board of Directors to ban smoking in all common areas in Reston, including our many miles of paths:

We, the undersigned, urge the Reston Association Board of Directors to set a policy to formally expand the current tobacco smoking prohibitions to ALL outdoor Reston Association Common Areas, without exception.

Reston is a model community with a reputation for being leading-edge on many fronts. Now is the time for the Reston Association to join the more than 3,270 municipalities in the United States that have more broadly recognized the hazard of tobacco and secondhand smoke by implementing local anti-smoking laws and policies. Please mandate a policy now to promote 100% smoke-free Reston Association Common Areas.
One backer of the proposal, Reston resident Cindy McConnell, first brought the idea to the Reston Association Board of Directors last fall.

As of today, there are 21 signatures on the online petition. The first to sign? None other than Bob Simon. Del. Ken Plum is #3.

14 comments:

  1. Typical Reston - home to retired Hall Monitors of the World. We only feel good if we can regulate every bit of your life.

    Next up: That Darn Rap Music that makes kids all crazy in the head. Ban Rap on the RA paths now!

    Also - no more wearing 'loud' shirts on RA paths. They give the old folks headaches.

    But Also Also: Keep your pets indoors where they belong or suffer our condescending glares!

    Most 'progressive' Restonians are so conservative they make librarians look like strippers...

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  2. This is a terrible terrible idea! News flash: Reston Association employees smoke. Where would they be allowed to take their smoke break? Would they have to drive out to Herndon?

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  3. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, and both my parents died from smoking-related illnesses.

    Yet this is true nanny state overkill that is worthy of the East German Stasi or Castro's neighborhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

    "Progressive" Restonians are so far left that they've circled around to meet the far right.

    Memo to the RA: Get the hell out of our lives.

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  4. Right on Nanny!

    I'm not a smoker either but will gladly light up a big fat Cuban at the hearing for this proposal!

    I'll even do it while standing on red mulch! (that's about as rebellious as it gets around here..)

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  5. Plum signed it? Sacre! Those anti-Plum attack ads are beginning to sound reasonable now.

    Somewhere servant-of-the-people Plum tranmogrified into ruler-of-the-people Plum. Force the peasants to do what is good for them.

    BTW I quit smoking 42 years, 13 days and 27 minutes ago. But who'se counting?

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  6. How about dealing with the all the illegals drinking in the bushes and littering there 4loco stuff all over the place.

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  7. I hate smoking as well. However, I'm with Nanny and Sherlock. This is ridiculous. And Cindy reveals her true agenda with point 3 -- it's PERSONAL. I'm sorry she has asthma and has had attacks while jogging that were triggered by secondhand smoke on the paths. How about walking past someone wearing way too much cologne or perfume? I've experienced that from men and women. Makes my eyes water, but I just keep moving.

    My son has a life threatening condition, triggered by external factors. I tell him that the only way to live with it is to avoid those external factors. The world is not his particular bubble to arrange.

    Cindy asks how we can promote fitness and fight obesity if we don't provide smoke-free places to exercise? We do -- they're called gyms.

    Sheesh. Hope she never gets an offer to live in another culture where smoking is ubiquitous.

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  8. All these responses sound like they came from the same person.

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  9. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonJune 15, 2011 at 10:28 PM

    Anon 10:08:

    I really doubt they're all one and the same person. I think it's more that people are getting fed up with the thought of the RA sticking its nose up everyone's wazoo. And I'm a non-smoker, by the way.

    I could see banning outdoor smoking by the entrance to an RA facility and maybe making smoking allowable in only a certain part of the pools and tennis facilities. But really, someone smoking a cigarette on the trails in the open space is a threat?

    If I wanted to live in a nanny state, or maybe I should say the nanny state par excellence, I would move to Montgomery County.

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  10. "All these responses sound like they came from the same person."

    Wow, imagine that - sane people with a similar reaction to an asinine proposal. Must be one person...right?

    Get real, IP logging says they are not the same person.

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  11. Pretty sure others support the idea of the petition -- and the people who have signed it at least had the courage to do so using their real names. Is it a good idea? I have my doubts. But it's definitely worth discussing, and a bullet the RA shouldn't continue to dodge.

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  12. 10:08 again -- I think the idea totally lacks merit too, I'm also a nonsmoker, I also nearly lost a relative to smoking... but the responses sound the same. I just don't get why every little issue that wafts through the door is cause for righteous indignation. Some things don't merit getting into a lather over.

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  13. Another non-smoker here that thinks this goes too far. Designating a place to smoke in/around RA facilities is one thing. But on the paths, let them smoke. Sheesh.

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  14. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonJune 17, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    I had to laugh reading the signature list on the petition -- some joker(s) signed in as Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, porn stars John Holmes and Ron Jeremy, and the late wrestling star Ron Savage.

    Surprised Anthony Weiner's name hasn't shown up there yet.

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