Can I get an Amen?!

I'm not a smoker. I don't want to inhale second hand smoke. I won't go to a place that forces me to do so in order to do business there. That's my choice, and how the free market works.

But I have written before, believe today, and think I will still believe tomorrow, that the government has no place regulating what happens in a private business. Zoning decides if a business fits an area. But, once that is decided no elected official has any right to tell that company how to conduct business.

Kudos to the Aldermen in Booneville! 

Aldermen vote down city smoking ban


BOONEVILLE — The Booneville Board of Aldermen has voted down a proposed ban on smoking in public places.

The vote was 3-2.

The motion to pass the ordinance was made by Alderman David Bolen and seconded by Alderman Wilda Pounds. Aldermen Harold Eaton, Mark McCoy and Jeff Williams voted against the measure.

Aldermen who were contacted by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal chose not to comment.

Business owners said they felt it should be up to a business to decide if smoking would be permitted, and how to accommodate individuals who choose not to smoke.

Several nonsmokers who opposed the ordinance said although they do not smoke, passing the law would be another infringement on individual rights.

Mississippi Business Journal