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Letters to the Editor

LETTER: Tobacco 21 law hypocritical

To the Editor:

I find the recent passage of a law making it illegal to purchase tobacco products under age 21 to be extremely hypocritical for many reasons.

We can send our youth off to war at 18, but we can't let them decide to smoke? Maybe we should say they can't join until they are 21.

Our new governor is quoted as saying "This is about the health of our youth and the longevity of its citizens." (smoking law) Yet our state competes with the nation's worst states to be most pro-abortion.

If we are concerned for "the health of our youth" why do we allow their lives to be destroyed before they take their first breath on their own? We allow people under 21 to take the lives of their children, is this health(y)?

The Monday, April 8 edition of The Times page A5 lists in an article an astounding number of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) among young people ages 15-24. Maybe we should pass laws forbidding sexual activity before marriage, that would eliminate the statistics! Maybe we can pass laws forbidding alcohol and drug usage for all citizens. Then we wouldn't need so many treatment facilities.

Illinois, the first Midwestern state to pass the "Tobacco 21" law is promoting legal recreational marijuana usage, what a farce!

If we are so concerned with our youths' health and longevity how about advocating the elimination of every vice our world offers that addicts people to various things?

In conclusion, I'm happy to say I tried smoking as a young teenager, but quit when I was 14. I hope young people never start smoking and that older people stop.

I remember the words of a song I heard as a young person: "Only one life so soon it will pass, only what's done for Christ will last."

If we would view the habits of our lives in relation to how our creator instructed us to live, I believe we will find true health and longevity here, and in the hereafter.

Wilbur Zeal, of Ottawa

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