STAND BY SENIORS ON SMOKING ISSUE

Open letter to all the citizens in Marshall County -Why don't you stop this
crusade against smoking and put your energy into something that really is a
killer, "drugs and alcohol." Senior citizens are the generation that smoke.
Please don't take their rights away from them. Help the younger generation
- - they really need your help. Seniors' lives are about over and if smoking
makes them happy, don't take it away from them.

I'm a non-smoker by choice and I'm a senior citizen. I go out once in a
while with a group of friends (all seniors) to different restaurants and
after a meal my friends like to enjoy a cigarette, but they can't even
enjoy that anymore. We seniors like to play bingo, which is mostly a senior
pastime, and now they are banning smoking there also. My gosh, how many
more rights are they going to take away from seniors? Bingo helps support
our churches and helps pay our teachers' salaries; what about the taxes the
country collects from the sales? Do you people forget how many people are
employed by the tobacco companies and the many worthy donations that are
made by them?

I've lived all my life with a family who smoked. I just turned 90 in July
and I say to you people out there who are so opposed to smoking, let it
alone. Focus on something that really needs help.

If you don't smoke what is your vice?

We seniors don't need anymore rights taken away. Let our bingo and
restaurants alone.

Please stand by us.

Anna Yost

McMechen