Michigan Smoking Laws

Sorry for the delay in posts lately. I guess things have just been busy at work and with life. At work we've been trying to get everything ready for the busy season, especially with the office being closed for two weeks between now and the first of the year. The rest of life has been busy trying to get ready for the holidays and working to get our wedding registry done (Macy's, Crate and Barrel, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for those interested...some duplicate items on each, mostly because I know some people like to shop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with their 20% off coupons). Luckily, today is a day where I've been able to hang out at home and watch some basketball (MSU beating IPFW, UofM losing to Kansas).

While, I know I write about sports a lot, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the smoking ban signed into law by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. It's a law that, in wording, bans smoking in work places. Most work places have already banned smoking, but this law will have a direct impact on bar and restaurant employees.

I have very mixed emotions on this law. There's a very large part of me that couldn't be more excited about this law. I love going out to the bar with friends on weekends, but I hate coming home and smelling like I've been surrounded by smoke all night. On top of that, I hate the knowledge that I'm breathing in second hand smoke the entire time I'm out. Some bars aren't so bad and you can get away from the worst of the smoke, but many of them are awful all around and you can't get away from it. Some would say you can just avoid going to bars and places that allow smoking. While that's one possibility, it doesn't really seem that likely at my age. Bars are popular hang outs for many people my age. It's a popular hangout for many people at all ages (at least those of legal drinking age). I'm a lot more likely to go out to the bar starting May 1, 2010 now that I know it'll be a smoke free environment.

Ok, that being said, if I was a bar owner I'd be very frustrated. Today, smoking is legal in Michigan (and America really if you want to stretch this that far). If I were a bar or restaurant owner, I have a hard time with the government telling me that something is legal to do, yet I'm not allowed to let it happen in my place of business. They're taking away my ability to run my business the way I choose. Now, if you want to ban smoking all together and make cigarettes and cigars illegal, OK. Then I'd be fine with them banning them from my business place because they are illegal. It's a very slippery slope. What is to stop the government from banning red meat in restaurants? What's to stop them from banning restaurants from using certain kinds of cooking oil that are bad for you? The government will never ban cigarettes and cigars. They receive way too much money in the high taxes on these items to ever make them illegal.

While I think it's a little far reaching to jump from the smoking ban to these items, it can be a slippery slope. The thing that makes smoking so different than my other two examples is how second hand smoke impacts the lives of others. The people who are not smoking the cigarettes are directly impacted by the smoker. In the case of greasy foods, it only impacts the person eating the food (and maybe their families in the long run if the person's life ends earlier than if they hadn't eaten those foods). So, I see the difference in these items, but I still think the government is telling these businesses how to run their operations, even though nothing they're doing is illegal if done outside or in your own home.

It also brings up one other item. The three Detroit casinos are exempt from the smoking ban. They claim they would lose business to the Native American run casinos in the rest of the state that would be exempt from the smoking ban because they're on the Native American land. While they'll probably lose some business, the majority of casino patrons in Detroit live in the Metro Detroit area. The closest Native American casinos to Detroit are the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant (a good two hour drive away) and the new Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek (90 minutes from downtown Detroit). It's hard for me to believe that most casino patrons would drive 90 minutes farther to gamble, just so they could light up at the gaming table. Most of the casino's research was based on the changes that happened at the Windsor Casino when Windsor banned smoking. They lost a lot of business to the Detroit casinos, but the driving difference between those two cities is about 10 minutes (unless there is a line at the border). There's a big difference between 10 minutes and 90 minutes. What it really comes down to is the state doesn't want to take any chances losing tax revenue from the casinos. So, they'll ban smoking from bars and restaurants because it won't change their customer base much (no alternatives), but when it might hurt the government, they make exceptions.

Don't Give Up. Don't Ever Give Up

Last night kicked off ESPN's Jimmy V week. For those of you not familiar, Jim Valvano was a college basketball coach from 1969-1990, mostly known for his time at North Carolina State at the end of his career. His time at North Carolina included winning the 1983 National Championship in one of the best finishes (and biggest upsets, over Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon's University of Houston team) in NCAA tournament history, followed by Jimmy V running around the court with his arms out just looking for someone to hug and celebrate with. He then went on to broadcast for ESPN and ABC after his coaching career was over, quickly becoming a fan favorite thanks to his exuberant personality and style.

In 1992, he was diagnosed with bone cancer that was fairly far along. That following spring, he gave a speech at the inaugural ESPY awards on ESPN. It's one of the best speeches I've ever heard. ESPN replays this speech once a year at the start of their Jimmy V week. I'm writing about it today because the speech was on again last night. If I had known ahead of time, I would have written about it earlier so everyone could have tuned in to see it. He gave the whole speech with no notes and just said whatever came to mind. At one point during the speech, one of the producers tried to tell him he had thirty seconds remaining in his time. To this, Jimmy V responded, "They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen. I got tumors all over my body and I'm worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds?" to which he got a loud round of applause from the live audience.

In his speech, he announced the founding of The V Foundation. The V Foundation raises money to support cancer research. Since 1993, the V Foundation has raised over $80 million. The one thing that I really like about the V Foundation is that 100% of every dollar raised by the V Foundation goes directly to fund cancer research, as everyone that works for the V Foundation works as a volunteer.

I'll leave you with something that always sticks with me from the speech. It's just something to think of when you think you're having a rough day. Many of us lead full, busy lives, but here's something to think about from Jimmy V:

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

I know money is tough for lots of people right now. If you're looking for a charity, and especially if your life has personally been touched by someone who has battled cancer, please check out the V Foundation: http://www.jimmyv.org

ESPN will continue it's Jimmy V week for the rest of this week and the early portion of next week as they continue raise money for cancer research.

First Thanksgiving in Michigan

I moved to Michigan in the fall of 2000 to start my college education at Michigan State. Since then, I have always gone back to my parent's home in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's always seemed like the best idea. Well, as most of you reading this know, I asked a wonderful woman to marry me last New Year's Eve. Even last year when we'd been dating for 8 or 9 months at the time, it was hard to leave Michelle for the holidays. As much as I wanted to see my family, there's something about being with that special someone for the holidays. This year, especially with her brother being in Korea for the holidays (see his blog here) , she thought it was very important to be with her family for Thanksgiving, as it was was the first major family gathering that Eric wouldn't be home for. This made perfect sense to me, so we stayed here for Thanksgiving.

There are definitely some differences between being in Wisconsin and being in Michigan for Thanksgiving. First of all, the local NBC station broadcasts the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade. It's probably the first time in my entire life that I haven't seen the Today Show personalities broadcasting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York (it was on, tape delayed at 4 AM Friday morning, and yes, I taped it with plans to watch it sometime this week). Second, I spent the afternoon watching the Lions-Packers game with Lions fans. This included an especially vocal and interested soon-to-be mother-in-law. I did my best to stay calm during the game and not be overly excited as the Packers managed a fairly easy victory over the lowly Lions. It was difficult though, as I'm used to watching it with my Dad who would always have cheered for the Packers with me. Third, as strange as it is, I missed the morning cinnamon rolls that my mom makes for the holidays. She doesn't make them often, and I'm sure they're terrible for you (lots of sugar), but I've always had them in the morning and Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess sometimes it's just the little things that you miss.

But, all of that being said, I really do love my fiance's family. They know how to have a good time and have invited me into their family very early on in my relationship with Michelle. It's also always fun when her sister comes home from Connecticut for a few days. Kelly doesn't get home that often, so any time she's here it's nice. As usual, everyone ate too much, some of us drank too much, and all in all we had a great weekend.

I do miss my parents though. I guess that's part of growing up. With being about 400 miles apart and having Michelle in my life, there are compromises that need to be made. Hopefully there will come a time where I have a family of my own and I probably won't be traveling at all on the actual holidays. I grew up spending Christmas at home and getting the play with all my new toys all day and I hope I can provide the same opportunities for my kids in the future. Michelle is going to make the same sacrifice for Christmas that I made for Thanksgiving, so I do understand it goes both ways. Luckily at Christmas time, while we'll be in Wisconsin for the actual holiday, we both have a couple weeks off work, so we'll be able to spend time with both families during the holiday season this year.