Dana Reeve, 1961-2006
Today marked another morning I huffed angrily all the way to work. Watching CNN just before I slipped my coat on to get out the door, I found out that Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, died of lung cancer on Monday. She was 44 and a nonsmoker. The Reeves leave behind a 13-year-old son.
Sure, a genetic mutation may cause lung cancer, the most common and deadliest of cancers, in nonsmokers. But even the researchers who presented this finding conceded that 87 percent of lung cancers are associated with smoking or secondhand smoke. (I would be interested to know the percentage pertaining to nonsmokers specifically, since relying on the above statistic alone is fuzzy math.) You can’t deny that secondhand smoke and air pollution must shoulder some of the blame, however.
It’s been 10 years since my father’s heart attack. He quit smoking right after, of course—how could you not when you’ve felt your own mortality slip away like a windswept exhalation of breath? And because he realized that his pack of Malboros wasn’t worth the anguish, he was able to escort my mother down their daughter’s wedding aisle and celebrate their secondborn’s happiness, and very hopefully, many more family milestones to come. As grateful as I am for how matters have transpired, I know that he is one of the luckier ones.
The question I put to smokers who aren’t making an effort to quit is this: Is your puffing of toxic additives worth it? Why does your God-bestowed, government-sanctioned right to smoke as a free individual in the pursuit of liberty and personal happiness preclude my own right to cleaner air? What if I don’t want to cameo in your drawn-out suicide attempt? What if I don’t want to die because of a decision you made and keep making with every noxious inhalation? Edgy nihilism doesn’t radiate from your dry, poisoned pores when you’re puckering up to that bad boy. No, you and your jaundiced pallor, your quivering hands, your yellowed teeth, invoke only pity (on a good day).
And your luck may just be about to run out.
jess said,
March 8, 2006 at 12:31 pm
oh, had not heard. Poor kido to have lost both parents. So sad.
The Worsted Witch » Read the Pre-nup Again said,
April 14, 2006 at 11:13 pm
[...] Me: I wish I had super powers so I could vaporize smokers off the streets. [...]
The Worsted Witch » What Grinds My Gears said,
August 15, 2006 at 12:28 pm
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The Worsted Witch » Indoor Smoking Ban: Smoke’s on the Environment? said,
January 30, 2007 at 6:21 pm
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