Just a few weeks until the beginning of the school year. I write to encourage the residents of our city to rise up and demand action on a problem that is right in front of us all. The problem: cigarettes and our minor children. Drive past the Taco Bell on Detroit; there they sit. Across the street at the Library - same thing.
Look at the sidewalks along Clifton. Everywhere you look you will see kids smoking.

Our local politicians, in my opinion, fold up their laptops and run for cover when the issue of smoking comes up for discussion. Our first priority should be to preserve the way of life on Madison and Detroit. This city may call itself a city of families, but smoking is one issue that is 100% anti-family.

We have ordinance #521.14 that prohibits the sale of cigarettes to minors; we have chapter 1727 dedicated to the issue. Does any reader think those laws work to minimize the possession of cigarettes by minors?

Why do any children smoke? Do their parents let them? Do their parents provide them with the cigarettes? That can't be the entire cause.

Why can't our council take up the issue of possession of cigarettes by minors? Does anyone think someone will stand up and state that kids have a right to smoke? That they have a right to walk to and from school and smoke? A right to smoke all around the school?

Are you prepared to listen to any public official actually defend the rights of kids to smoke?

We have told them they can't vote until they are 18 and they can't drink until they are 21. But we will let them get addicted to nicotine before they graduate from high school?

How can we all sit back and watch these kids?