You Can't Enforce Respect

Back before Florida decided to outlaw smoking in restaurants, The Front Porch, one of my favorite restaurant/bars in Tampa, had a simple way of accommodating smokers and nonsmokers alike. They had an in-house rule: at the Front Porch, no one could smoke in the bar if someone was eating. If someone's meal was ready, the bartender would let all the smokers know to take their cigarettes outside, so the hungry patrons could taste the meals they paid for. After the patrons ate, the smokers could light their cigarettes up again. I asked the owner (we'll call him Rick so he can retain anonymity and I can pretend like I remember his name) how he came up with that rule and he said, “It was my parents' rule at home growing up. It's just disrespectful to smoke while a person eats.”

True enough.

The sad thing is, though this rule exists in every smoke-stinking home in America, it took government enforcement to make it so people could eat a meal in a restaurant without having to smell smoke while they ate it.

Now, you can make all your arguments that this anti-smoking law is more of a result of knowledge about second-hand smoke than it was about eating. But I disagree. People prone to hanging out in bars are pretty much used to smoke. But no one gets used to a steak that tastes like an ashtray. And anyway, we're getting farther away from my point here.

The fact that it took the government to enforce a rule of common civility is an affront to right-thinking humans everywhere. Of course, most humans aren't right-thinking so the subject received little media attention. But I digress. Again.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is, that common courtesy and common sense have lost all meaning in today's society. We don't decide to look out for our fellow human beings. Instead, we decide to pass laws so that people can be screwed over equally. And the end result is a sense of right and wrong which is based on, well, not thinking about right and wrong.

Please understand, I ain't no hippie freak here to call for some kind of global group hug or anything, and I'm not saying that the people around me need to be nicer. They are, for the most part, cool.

The problem is that because we have laws that enforce common decency, we have stopped thinking about the philosophy behind such decency. The meaning is pointless, and when the meaning is pointless, the lessons don't get taught.

Which is a shame, because I believe these particular lessons are worth something. If nothing else, they teach us to consider the people around us as human beings.

I guess what I mean to say here is, don't smoke when I'm eating, please.

Thank you.