Dear Tobacco Executive,
Let me start off by saying, I don’t necessarily blame you for others’ choices. People will do what they do given available options. I am a former smoker and very much enjoyed the habit, to the extent of considering growing my own tobacco illegally to bypass the government's growing tax and societal restrictions. But I quit smoking 2 years after my mother (which is both the hardest thing to do and, in hindsight, quite easy). I could complain about the added nicotine being an unfair hook (as natural tobacco has nowhere near the ‘kick’ of brand tobaccos), but I won’t.
I will not defend you but can say the ads were not what hooked people. The scare tactics, graphic pictures, PSA’s and high taxes aren’t helping people quit. The government - against big tobacco, against it’s own people. Screw ‘em. Nothing has ever really been worked out as a means to an en. And this is partially why I am writing.
The reason for this letter is as you’ve likely heard a million stories before, my mother was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Having been a long term smoker but quit more than 6 years ago, it wasn’t soon enough. This can turn out a few different ways but regardless of how well it does, you need to be addressed. Not as a company, not as a large entity banking on something that is so hard to quit that users even joke about the consequences while having the break-time smoke. You need to be dealt with as an individual. Please, let me explain, and this is the part I hope the most angry of people pay attention to…
You, as an individual, work for a company then return to your nice lavish home driving a car I could only dream of affording and sleep in your cozy bed every night while so many of your ‘customers’ are at home wheezing, gasping for breath, on oxygen, suffering from COPD, Cancer, Emphysema, strokes and the lucky ones die of heart attacks. How many lives are being torn apart at any one moment because of what your company is peddling? You don’t need to work this particular job but you choose to, if you weren't there, someone else would perform those functions, yes but then YOU wouldn’t be condemnable in this matter. This makes you not only a terrible human in general but, as logic would seem to show, you are knowingly assisting (accessory) in killing people in the worst imaginable ways and tearing countless lives apart.
Besides all of the other damage and illnesses, smoking kills more than 480,000 people in the US each year (CDC data), so if you have worked for a tobacco company for 3 years, you have had a part in the killing of many more than a million people. You know Hitler had a part in killing more than a million people too. I’m also willing to bet that history would have looked very favorably at anyone who took it upon themselves to kill Hitler in any manner possible. If Hitler was killed then the generals, the murders would have drastically dropped and fast. Most religions and laws also seem to back the concept of taking a life to save many lives. Too bad the law might not feel the same as I do on this. What I am saying is, for your part in the misery of so many people, you DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIFE as you have taken theirs, ours, mine. You enjoy a lifestyle, savings and profits while having a part in the torture and killing of more people than Hitler, all wars, firearms, alcohol, illegal drugs, motor vehicle injuries and general homicides.
I know that one exec might not matter and the companies would still function. I am curious though, and only curious as I exercise my first amendment right… I am curious as to how fast a tobacco company would fail if say, something happened to each president who tried to run it. Eventually, as logic predicts, nobody would be dumb enough to take a job you would be dispatched for taking. Then work backward down the chain of command. This is not a threat nor a call to arms. Although, in my personal opinion, would definitely not condemn someone for saving countless life or bring justice upon known and current killers.
I apologize to smokers and don’t blame you either. You should be able to do as you like, I’d prefer people be allowed to grow their own but that is another conversation. As I imagine so many people have done, until you break down so incredibly hard, your immune system temporarily shuts down, you have some psychotic snap in your head that changes how you see everything in the world in such a way you scare yourself and are capable of doing ANYTHING, including gnawing off your own limb if it would mean saving your mother from such potential suffering, until you reach that point, you are numb to the crap around you. I know I was. I only hope the next few people who commit horrible acts in the US refrain from shooting up schools or public places and instead see an alternative that tens of thousands would secretly cheer for..
Therapy. Yeah, Therapy as an alternative. Let's end with that thinly veiled bullshit like the tobacco companies and governments do.
