To the editor:
Let me begin by saying that I have never smoked a cigarette in my life and cannot stand going to bars that allow smoking. Yet, as many people clearly do not understand, just because I - or a group of people - do not like it, does not mean that I - or the group - am allowed to take control of any individual's private property and dictate to them what they can or cannot do. That is the opposite of freedom.
A bar or restaurant is not public property like a park; it is private property which the owner has graciously made available to provide to whomever so desires. A service. We don't have to use that service if we don't want to, but it's there for us if we do. The only catch is that we must abide by the property owner's rules since it is his or her property, not the government's or our own, as many like to think.
That being said, a government school like UNH, it could be argued, is public property since the government owns it and thus regulation could be a legitimate governmental action. Whether or not the government should be allowed to own property at all is another issue in itself. If, however, we accept (as most have) that all businesses are public property then what we have decided is that there is no such thing as private property.
The "owners," thus, have lost all freedom of control; the business is now a ward of the state and must conform to the dictates of the bureaucrats and politicians, whether in Durham, Concord or Washington, D.C.
They have lost the right to conduct their business as they choose and are forced by edict to surrender self-determination to the state. This is a Marxist belief, and one that must be rejected if we hope to live in a truly free society. I often hear people claim that we have a "right" to breathe clean air wherever we go. But how can you have a "right" to something that is on someone else's property? You cannot. You only have a right to clean air on your own property. You do not have a right to walk into someone else's establishment and demand they clean their air because you wish to enter.
In essence you would then be claiming that you are the owner of the establishment, not because you paid for the property, but simply because you decided to enter! No one has a right to enter another person's private property. An owner can decide who will be allowed in for any reason (though current laws prevent this), just as you can choose whom to allow into your home. An owner can do whatever he or she wishes within the physical limits of his property as long as it does not involve fraud or violence against another. Your property is your castle.
I can choose to enter a private establishment if I want, or I may choose not to enter for any reason (moral, economic, or health) but I do not have a right to enter Libby's, Wings Your Way or any other private establishment. I only have the privilege, one that can be terminated whenever the owner decides. Our motto is "Live free or die" not "Live free - unless someone else doesn't like the way you are living, in which case we will pass a law preventing you from living that way - or die, that is as long as the state doesn't object."
From a non-smoker
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