Cancer Sticks

Cigarettes, that's what I call them, cancer sticks. This morning they claimed the life of another, Dana Reeve, the wife of Christopher Reeve died of lung cancer, yet she never smoked. When she was first diagnosed she figured it was due to all the years she spent as a cabaret singer, singing in those smoky lounges. How many more have to die before the tobacco companies get out of the business. I guess when big money is the bottom line you just don't have a conscious. I know there was one family member of one of those companies that left the business. Good for him. I guess the others just don't care that they are peddling illness and death. Those farmers could just as well be growing corn and those companies could be making ethanol gas.
My dad smoked for 60 years up until he had congestive heart failure at the age of 80. Being that he was in and out of the hospital so many times, and couldn't smoke, he finally stopped. He "crossed over to the other side" as we like to say. He finally "got it". He saw how pleasant it was to sit in the non-smoking section when we went out to eat. No longer did he and his car reek of smoke. Of all his health issues, the one thing that is the worst, is his trouble breathing.
During World War II the tobacco companies gave the servicemen cigarettes for free. Real nice of them, huh. How many of them got hooked and have died since of tobacco related illnesses?
When my mother would watch the boys she'd say, "I washed all their clothes for you" and if there were plastic containers those too. I'd have to rewash everything. It smelled like an ashtray. She still smoked close up until she died.
Back when my brother-in-law was living and smoked and the boys were little, there were times when we thought twice about going over to visit. You come home, your clothes smelling, and you're going to put your kids to bed with that stench of smoke on them? NOT!
You smoke? Wonder why people don't visit?
When I see people huddled outside buildings smoking, it just looks like a bunch of drug addicts to me shooting up without a needle.

Here are the addresses of some of the major tobacco companies. Send them a postcard. Tell them how you feel. Send this to everyone on your email list. Wouldn't it be great if they got flooded with them?
Don't know what to say? Perhaps just one bold line like:

Smoking killed my ______________
Cigarettes kill people!
Get out of the business of peddling illness and death.

Copyright © 2006 Deborah Sharp Loeb


Philip Morris USA
Consumer Response Center
P.O. Box 26603
Richmond, Virginia 23261

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
Consumer Relations Department
P. O. Box 2959
Winston-Salem, NC 27102-2959

Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.
N.G. Brooks, Chairman
PO Box 35090
Louisville, KY 40232
401 South 4th Avenue, Suite 200
Louisville, KY 40202

Liggett Group, Inc.
John Long, Vice President & General Counsel
Liggett Group, Inc.
100 Maple Lane
Mebane, NC 27302-8160

Lorillard Tobacco Company
Ronald S. Milstein, Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary
Lorillard Tobacco Co.
714 Green Valley Road
PO Box 10529
Greensboro, NC 27404-0529