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The Crowe's Nest |
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Write:
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I may have good sense in some things but I don't have good sense in a lot of other things. In the things that I do not have good sense in, I am bound to continue to not have good sense in, because when a person does not have good sense in a thing he does not have enough sense to reject his bad sense and take on good sense. When it comes to smoking, I go against all the good sense of the world. I don't believe science has proved that second-hand smoke is one bit dangerous to a normal, healthy human being. In fact, I don't believe that science has proved that smoking even causes cancer in humans. Millions die of cancer that have never smoked or lived with smokers. The doctors cannot say to those many millions that cigarettes were the cause of their cancer. And because they cannot say that, they have nothing to say at all about what caused the cancer. However, when a smoker dies of cancer it is automatically assumed that cigarettes were the cause. There are millions of smokers that lived into old age and died of natural causes that could not be linked to cigarettes. I am convinced that a two-block walk in any mid-sized city in America causes a human to breath in more cancer causing pollutants than a life-time of a pack a day cigarette habit. Smoking is not a healthy habit, but neither is living in a society that breaths in the poisons from automobiles and factory smoke stacks, lawn mowers and all other kinds of other things that leak toxins into the air, water and the ground and eventually find their way into our food stuff and blood veins and other important organs. I believe in the right of a person to allow himself to become addicted to anything he wants, as his choice in life. If a person is too weak or too stubborn to break his habit, tough luck for him. The heart of liberty is to make our own choices and take our own risks, even at the risk of our health and our lives. I say all that with the full knowledge that I don't have good sense when it comes to this subject, but it's the only sense I've got. I love the natural balance of our true human rights – those rights that cannot be denied by force or the laws of man. For instance, the right to look down on people is just as true a right as the right to look up to people. People are going to look down on some people whether they admit it or not. And even if they admit it, nothing can be done about it. Those that agree with them may look up to them and those who don’t will look down on them for looking down on others. Since all of us, if we’re honest, are going to always have people that we look down on, the only thing we can do about it is to be honest about it to ourselves. If we can’t admit it to ourselves we can’t deliver ourselves from our bondage and break free to bask in the light of higher understanding. I’ll admit that I look down on more folks than I look up to. I look down on folks even when I know I shouldn’t. But at least I realize it is something I need to correct. For instance, I look down on great, big, fat strangers that I see out in society even though I realize that it is wrong and that they may be wonderful people in spite of their hugeness. There are others that I look down on that I am totally convinced should be looked down on, such as murderers, rapists, muggers, child abusers, bad cops and all that crowd. The hypocrites and dirty liars are a little more complicated because even though I look down on them, I sometimes find myself wondering if it’s just because they are stupid and can’t help it. But even then, it’s a hard hill for me to climb, to get to that place where I can look over them. On the subject of crying and whether or not it is "sissy" to cry, my feeling is that if a man wants to cry, let him. However, crying in and of itself does not prove "tenderness" anymore than not crying proves toughness. I do believe that the greatest thing a human can possess is a tender heart and I don't think a person can be instructed by word or man on how to obtain one. I believe that the tender-hearted are born that way and begin showing it by the age of three and continue to show it throughout their lives.
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