Smoking ban robs us all of our rights

I believe the current ban on smoking is a violation of our civil rights that American armed forces are at this time fighting to secure and preserve.

Isn't the purpose of our service members to give us freedom to live and die in, as we see fit? I believe we are securing this security worldwide and freeing men from oppression. We Americans have shed our blood on five of the seven continents, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq, and now our government is entering our private lives with rules and regulations that we have been free of for centuries.

Apparently, some of the Columbia County commissioners are unaware of veterans who have had a comrade die in their arms, and who are now being denied their civil rights in the land they believed in and fought for. I, myself, proudly served in combat in Vietnam, and will always believe in the rights of American citizens.

To the state senator who underhandedly coached the Columbia County commissioners on passing the no-smoking bill, I say, perhaps I should lower my American flag and replace it with a Nazi cloth. As I sat in the senator's office when he promised me you would not support the ban, I said, "You have never lived until you have nearly died, and for those who fought for it freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."

Don Brown, Martinez