Each week the Comet polls its readers on a different topic. Vote online at carrollcountycomet. com starting each Thursday, and then click the Comments link to send us an email voicing your opinion. The best responses will be printed the following week.

After hearing President Obama Monday night, do you think government can save the economy?

Yes, it's imperative that something be done now No, we need to let the economy right itself

Last Week's results

Do you support a state law banning smoking in all public places in Indiana?

51% Yes, because of the health hazards of second hand smoke

01% Yes, because nonsmokers outnumber smokers

32% No, because it violates personal rights

15% No, because designated smoking areas are working out just fine

Total responses: 222

Reader's comments:

The smoking bans are restrictive to those people who smoke and are counterproductive to the entire population. Indiana relies on the tax revenue to fund a lot of programs. If everyone quits smoking, the revenue has to come from somewhere. What new "vice" could then be taxed to death. Attention should be directed to alcohol consumption that affects more people and is inherently more dangerous than the perceived dangers of "second-hand smoke." DUIs are the "cash cow" and bring in a lot of money to the various treasuries in the state. The accident and death rates are much greater than smoking. Automobile, truck, and industrial emissions are responsible for releasing thousands of chemicals into the air we breath (many of them are known carcinogens). So I ask you, why take a legal product and legislate it into illegal consumption?" After all, tobacco was the first cash crop of an emerging economy known as the "colonies" in the late 1700s.

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I grew up in a family where nearly everyone smoked except the kids. They smoked heavily for years until their lungs were so bad that they either had to quit or die, and there were some in both categories.

Both of my in-laws died of lung cancer within eight months of one another, and my father-in-law had quit cold turkey 15 years earlier. At first he seemed to be recovering, but since my mother-in-law continued smoking in the house and out, he was breathing in all the second-hand smoke.

I am tired of hearing about smoker's rights. No one, not even the constitution gives them the right to smoke dangerous materials, especially not in the presence of others. Smokers are like chimneys belching poisonous gases into our atmosphere, and often directly into the breathing air space of others. And they seem to forget that many of those non-smokers are allergic to cigarette smoke. My nasal passages slam shut when confronted with even a little smoke. It is nothing short of assault on other people. It is like walking down the street spraying mace in people's faces.

Those who smoke in their own cars often roll down the window to throw out their empty packs and burning butts. Not only are they littering our highways and streets, but the smoke rolls back into the air vents of the cars behind them—I have seen it. There is no getting around the fact that smokers are polluting our atmosphere and are probably the most prolific litterers we have. No one knows how many forest fires have been started by cigarette butts thrown from cars. What ever happened to using the car ashtrays?

Finally, I think whatever rights we think we do have end where someone else's rights begin. None of us has the right to endanger the health or property of other people.