Make Them Say 'Sorry'
Richard Cohen in The Washington Post.
Something is missing from the cigarette settlement.
I feel this strongly, possibly irrationally and not at all, many will
insist, realistically. Still, I feel that at the very least all of
usespecially
those of us who ever smokedshould get an apology from Big
Tobacco, a humble and most humbling "I'm Sorty" accompanied by
some pretty fair groveling. I want contrition.
I find nothing like that in the proposed agreement. I do not
find an admission of guilt, a confession of greed, an acknowledgment
that they always knew the evils of smoking but, hey they wanted to
make a buck I want the tobacco biggies, the guys who make millions of
dollars, to say they were wrong and now they will devote the rest of
their lives to a worthwhile cause.
When my Uncle Mike died, I took a sign from his
house:"Warning. Oxygen In Use." He had emphysema, the payback
from the gazillion Chesterfields he smoked over the years. I took the
sign, and
stared at it whenever I Iit up. I thought it would make me quit, but it
didn't. I could smoke in the very face of the consequencessuch is the
addiction. Finally I quit, but I fear that someday all those cigarettes will
catch up with me. I started at l4. My decision, I know. Still, I hadn't
even heard of emphysema.
President Bill Clinton, forever in loco parentis, is intent on
stopping youngsters from smoking. He's right, of course. But what is
the lesson for teenagers or anyone else, for that matter) when people
sell something awful, something whose mere use constitutes abuse, and
get away with it? They are not asked to apologize. Their names are not
posted on some wan so that they can be shamed. They are not
punished and, indeed, have arranged matters so that the punishment to
their companies is limited.
I want contrition. What I'm getting, though, is more smoke.