Ya know, if you weigh 400 lbs,, you're sucking on a cigarette, eating a Twinkie, gulping a Coke, and you want me to pay for your health care with my tax dollars I would be more than happy to kick you square in your useless ass.
The smoking is absolutely germane to the article. If we are going to successfully implement universal healthcare, we each need to take responsibility for doing what we can to maintain and improve our health. Keeping the cost of a publicly-financed health system in check will be impossible if we throw personal responsibility to the wind, and have everyone figure that he can do as he pleases because the taxpayer will pick up the tab. The social contract is a two-way street.
A good and thorough article...until you ruined it with the last 2 sentences.
What does the fact anyone smoked have to do with the protest? The only answer I can come up with is a.) the reporter wanted to be "cute" and/or incite their readers, crossing the line of objective reporting; or b.) the reporter (or his bosses) wanted to make a biased statement suggesting something other than just reporting the facts.
Why stop at smoking? Why not tell us if any protesters had a broken arm? a skin rash? were overweight?
In the credibility and "smarts department", Seven Days went down a notch today.
At least four of them were smoking.
“Does anyone have a cigarette?” another asked upon joining the crowd.
Oh the irony. Can I get ya a Coke and a Twinkie to go with your cig?
I was one of the citizens singing in the capital building yesterday. First it is important to remember that this building belongs to all Vermont Citizens not just the legislature. I commend the capital police as they were
very respectful as I felt we the protestors were. I feel that Governor Shumlin has failed in his assignment to
provide a viable plan to implement single payer health care. He has had four years and then said we just
can't do it. This is not acceptable. If he had the courage to disclose this information before the election he would not be governor today in my opinion.
I also disagree with the several prayer presentations as part of the process. I believe in the separation of church and state and think the prayers belong in the legislators' churches, not in the state capital.
Anyway the good news to me is that we are talking about the Health Care today which did not happen during the ceremonies, so showing we care about this issue did stimulate a discussion.
I'm disappointed by the actions of the Vermont Workers' Center in sponsoring these disruptive protests. While I'm sympathetic to their cause, actions like this do a disservice to progressive issues and frankly, to the state of Vermont.
In turn, lawmakers be advised: Just because regular people are not knocking on your door or filling your pockets with campaign cash doesn't mean they don't matter. Get out there and give people a voice.
Jen, I do think it's relevant to mention the smoking. These protesters are fighting for health care. They are fighting for HEALTH. Yet they smoke, which is one of the most detrimental, preventable, causes of poor health and death. It's a bit bizarre.
Of course all the elected officials decry the protest in their "sanctified" Statehouse. All that symbolism and bogus officialdom that each & every legislator stands behind helps them control the message. They hate it when actual democracy happens. Our "liberal" legislature is a joke. It's an environment controlled by professional politicians and lobbyists. And they get away with it because, really, they're elected by maybe 10-15% of eligible voters. and most of those vote for them because there's no choice... or a choice between Corporatist A and Corporatist B. I'm most ashamed of the so-called "Progressives".
I believe it's inappropriate to end this article with a reference to the activists smoking cigarettes- it seems intended to erode their integrity, or suggest that there's some kind of irony in people who choose both to smoke, and to participate in the democratic process.
This is an issue that matters to many Vermonters, and the reporting on it needs to be respectful.
How a purportedly liberal governor of an ostensibly liberal state could be as unpopular as Shumlin beggars belief.
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Cathy, if you think it's appropriate to note a couple of the protesters smoke then you must think it would be relevant if any of the protesters were overweight/obese, right? Obesity kills more people than smoking.
So...if the article said "And this reporter saw many overweight people in the protesting group" or "And this reporter heard an overweight protester ask where can we get dinner?" that would have been appropriate too, right?
Your "argument" makes no sense. Convince me I'm wrong.