Reader comments
Anti-smoking crusader motivated by personal loss

Milt Lausten | 8:42 a.m. July 5, 2009

Good for you, Logan! Keep up the good work.

uncannygunman | 10:05 a.m. July 5, 2009

Some of us still believe that the freedom to make a lot of poor choices is more important than the benefits arguably gained by banning those poor choices. As one of those people, I can't support this group's crusade to ban outdoor smoking.

Please spare us | 3:15 p.m. July 5, 2009

Logan's mother wasn't "taken" from him by cigarettes; it was her own poor choices combined with abuse of illegal drugs and alcohol. Besides, she's still alive despite her smoking habit.

And the idea that his father's pneumonia was caused by second-hand smoke is highly debatable. Pneumonia kills thousands of Utahns each year, the vast majority of whom have never been significantly exposed to cigarette smoke.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." Articles such as this one remind me that the greatest threats to our freedom come from the activists, not the despots.

Comments continue below

gp | 9:28 p.m. July 5, 2009

Logan three years ago I lost my Dad from lung cancer too, even that he stop smoking many years before his dead,the damage was there,so I am proud of people like you who makes a diferent in this world in telling the people how the cigarette kills.
Is truth people who smokes has the freedom of choice but also people like you makes a big diferent in spreading the work CIGARRETES ARE KILLERS.

Missed the point | 8:22 a.m. July 6, 2009

Too bad "uncannygunman" and "Please spare us" missed the point. This is less about stopping a filthy habit and more about a brave kid trying to do what he thinks will help his community. Everyone hides behind the "it is my choice" arguement ... well, it is Logan's choice to stand up for what he believes in and DO something about it (rather than just whine in the editorials...)

Re: gp | 8:35 a.m. July 6, 2009

Sorry for your loss but everyone, including your Dad, knows that "cigarretes (sic) are killers".

In fact, we hear it so often that most people are getting heartily sick of it, and anti-tobacco crusaders are quickly becoming shrill, tiresome nuisances whose contrived sanctimony got old a long time ago.

Human beings seem to have a perverse need to find some scapegoat upon which they can heap their disapproval; smokers are the durable whipping boy for the Modern Puritans. I think most anti-smoking activists are attracted more by the idea of being able to persecute and control someone than they are by stopping the universally-accepted evils of smoking.

jake | 2:29 p.m. July 6, 2009

Your cause is noble, Logan. People are either for the death and destruction caused by tobacco, or they're against. I chewed Copenhagen for 20 years and it humiliates me to admit it.

sheila | 6:12 a.m. July 7, 2009

The Nazi Youth Group in Germany was JUST as committed to controlling behavior. Total belief in the cause of Hitler and purity. Frightening isn't it. Too bad Logan has had such a hard life. So many of us have had the same experience with a family history of abandonment and drug abuse. I don't blame anyone or anything. These causes that unfortunate people cling to to give themselves a sense of value are false hopes. Stopping smoking WILL not stop death or drug abuse or abandonment. But it probably helps some people feel they have some control. If people don't want to use tobacco, DON'T. If you don't want to go in a venue that allows smoking, DON'T. My mom turns 80 tomorrow. Been smoking since she was 16. It's genetics folks.

Inspired | 8:24 a.m. July 7, 2009

Thank you for the work you are doing Logan! It was inspiring to read about you and OUTRAGE...and so awesome to see a group of kids doing something to make the community a better place. Your story will help save others from the dangers of tobacco...keep up the good fight!

Good work! | 9:38 a.m. July 7, 2009

Way to go Logan. Not only is your cause a noble one...it is also backed up by scientific evidence and best practices. After all, tobacco use IS the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and the state of Utah. Keep up the good work!

Good Cause | 8:41 a.m. July 8, 2009

Logan is doing something he believes in and should be commended for this. I have no ill will towards someone such as himself that wants the better for everyone, but let's not go to far. I am a smoker by choice. I am always aware of folks around me that don't and try to be sensitive to this fact. Thank god there is something called freedom of rights in the United States of America.

@ uncannygunman (and others) | 8:59 a.m. July 8, 2009

What you say about "freedom" is a poor misinterpretation of the word. In this country, we do not have the "freedom" to risk or ruin other peoples' lives. In case you didn't read the article, secondhand smoke kills people who never made that poor decision.

There is also the fact that the tobacco industry does absolutely everything it can to get its customers hooked on their product - and I would hardly call an addiction to an expensive product "freedom."

An industry that does everything it can to ensure that people keep buying more and more of their product - whether they really want to or not - hardly deserves protection in the name of "freedom."

KENT | 9:01 p.m. July 8, 2009

LOGAN......I AM YOUR UNCLE MIKE'S BROTHER-IN-LAW AND HE SENT THIS TO ME. I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING FOR A GOOD CAUSE. KEEP IT UP I'M PROUD OF YOU AND YOUR GRANDMA TOO.

brianna | 9:00 a.m. Aug. 28, 2009

I am part of OUTRAGE as well. We are not trying to take away the smokers rights we are trying to enforce the rights of the children playing at the parks. Logan has gone through so much and he is an insparation to all if us in the group. you still have the choice to smoke, just not in the public parks.

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