Everyone who wants to retain the right to vape needs to do this. Or something like it. Make yourself heard. Why? For one, I've heard that 7-11 (at least in Vegas) will start carrying starter kits in September. This is bound to make news. We need a positive spin on the whole subject - beginning now - before tobacco lobbyists, non-smokers and other busybodies step up to the national microphone and launch a smear campaign. There's nothing the mass market media loves more than frothing nay-sayers. Trust me here; I've worked in the industry since the early 80's. Our bandwagon needs to be already rollin' and loaded with good solid facts, good testimony, goodwill and happy faces when the subject is laid before public. Let the 'other side' foam at the mouth and look like scary, rabid beasts...
The one remark I hear most from the uninformed is: "Aren't those illegal (or banned)?" Why? Because bad news travels way faster than good news does. The FDA sure didn't hold a press conference to say they lifted the ban, now did they?
How many of you got sick and tired of being hassled when you smoked analogs? Did you do anything as you watched the number of smoking areas dwindle? Probably not. Why not? Because you really didn't have a leg to stand on what with the second-hand smoke uproar.
But NOW you have tens of thousands of strong legs to help you stand tall.
We aren't harming anyone else anymore. We've stopped killing ourselves - like I think the FDA really gives a poop anyway - stopped overflowing ashtrays and grounded butts and all the other reasons non-smokers brought down their wrath upon us.
In a country that stands for personal freedom, how many of those do we really have left? Me thinks old Ben Franklin would've been the father of mod-makers. No doubt Jefferson would've been the E-juice King. They were smart men; visionaries. I'm sure the concept would've been thought brilliant.
We were steamrolled as smokers; forced to feel like the Great Unwashed.
As vapers, we could be vaporized.
Because, as yet, we don't have the presence; we just plain don't have the numbers to be a reckoning force. We must make ourselves seen and heard.
For those of you embarrassed to vape in public, I hear you. It's been a hard hurdle for me to jump as well BUT I came to the astounding realization that public vaping is the one big thing that I - and you, as Vape Ambassadors, can do to help insure that we can continue to have the right to do so. And it feels so darn to good to politely fly in the face of non-smokers.
(I'll illuminate more on overcoming the apprehension and what I do in another post.)I have never been politically active because, as a journalist, it was my job to be objective - to look at both sides without judgement but there comes a time in life when you have to draw the proverbial line in the sand. Ask yourself: "Am I a man or a mouse? Do I hide in my corner and hope someone else will fight my battle for me?"
How's that been working out for ya?
So I say to The Man: leave me to vape in peace, health and harmony. And I signed in at the above link and said so. I tell people what it is and why I do it. I'm not militant about it, although sure, at times I'd like to be - especially when a woman with a .... the size of Texas (I only mention this because it was so big that I had to scoot all the way to the left side of my stool to keep it from touching me. Yuck!) sits down next to me in a smoking casino, starts coughing and frantically waving away my 'smoke' before calling a floor attendant to ask ME to move. The floor attendant asked me where she could get one.
It never occurred to me to complain about .... harassment.Time to draw your line, Vapers.
I'd rather fight than switch...
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Good thing to point out.
