3 Strikes and You're Out, Appleton...

Will they finally realize they lost (twice all ready):

Bar Owners In Appleton Try to Force Referendum

60 bar owners in Appleton are trying to force a referendum, exempting them from the city's smoking ban. The proposed referendum calls for exempting free-standing bars, but not bars inside businesses like restaurants and bowling alleys.
Bill Maloney with the XTreme Bar tells NBC26 he dropped off petitions to 60 bar owners today. "The bar business in Appleton is really struggling and we just want to be treated like everyone else," Maloney said.
"We're not saying smoking is good for you - we're just saying we just want to be treated like everyone else."
Maloney says bar owners have until August 13th to collect signatures. After that, the common council will have 30 days to make a decision.
The existing ban was approved in April 2005 and has been in effect since July 2005.

His statement is terrible. They are not trying to be treated like everyone else, they are trying to get special treatment. Every other workplace does not allow smoking. Why should just one type allow it?

When these first started happening, I was on the side of 'It's their establishment, let them decide if they want smoking or not.' I have since changed my mind.

Why? It is an Equal Employment Opportunity issue with me. People with breathing difficulties cannot work as a server in bars or restaurants that allow smoking.

"They can find other work." I am often told in response. Imagine if an office building refused to build a ramp to allow people in wheelchairs access? The public outcry would be deafening. It is the same issue with smoking. The service industry is the fastest growing segment of the economy, and they are barring people with respitory problems from it.

Now, imagine if your company allowed just a little poison in the coffee everyday. Not enough to kill you, or for you even to feel the effects right away. However, enough to provide for long-term health problems. That would be illegal and immoral, yet noone feels that it is wrong for business owners to fight to force exposure to cancer and disease causing second-hand smoke.

Maybe we should let asbestos be used again. Second-hand smoke in the workplace has the potential to be the asbestos of this century.

Finally, as I have gone out in Appleton several times since the ban. It seems to me that since it has gone into effect, they have built a new 2-story bar, and many of them still have lines out the door to get in. This does not look like a business killer to me.

If it were true that smoking bans kill business, why isn't the Fish House the busiest bar of Appleton's downtown? It is still empty often, yet it has had a fences in area behind it where you can have your drink outside it (and still smoke) since before the ban. It is very empty when I go past it.

There should be a line around the block.

Let the ban stand - it will continue to pass.