Smoking: As Bad As Gay Marriage?

Alabama state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures apparently knows no shame when it comes to her passion of banning smoking in all public places. Her latest bill would allow Alabama voters to decide whether smokers should be prevented from lighting up in any bar or restaurant regardless of the owner's wishes.

Now we can debate personal choices and property rights till kingdom comes -- you don't have to go to a smoking-allowed bar, nor do you have to work there, nor do you (as an owner) have to allow smoking -- but that's not the point here. Instead, it's Mrs. Figures' unique reasoning for why her obsession is so important that is should be added to the Alabama Constitution:

"If we can give the people the opportunity to vote on whether to ban gay marriages, certainly we should give them the opportunity to vote on whether there should be clean air when they eat in a restaurant," said Figures, referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages that will be on the June 6 primary ballot.

Um, yeah, that connection makes sense. Gay people who love each other seeking the same rights and protections as straight people equals a guy puffing on a Camel and sipping his Bud at the corner bar.

Mrs. Figures (she is the widow of Michael Figures, once the most powerful black legislator in Alabama and one of the state's movers-and-shakers regardless of race) actually did cast the lone Senate vote against placing the gay marriage ban on the ballot this November. But before we applaud a 'courageous stand,' check out her reasoning:

She said she opposes same-sex marriages, but she sees no need for a constitutional amendment because state law and the Bible already prohibit them.

"It's a waste of time," she said.

Banning cigarettes from places where owners already have a choice whether to allow smoking isn't a waste of time, but stopping discrimination against an entire class of citizens is? (Especially, when you have your own doubts about whether homosexuality is a choice?)

A waste of time?

For your sake, Mrs. Figures, and for that of the other 1.2 million blacks living in Alabama, I'm glad Martin Luther King Jr. never had your attitude.