Open letter to the dear smokers out there who think that tossing a butt on the ground is not littering, or out of a car into dry grass is not dangerous for the fire fighters that must then race in and clean up your mess.

Now, I will be the first to say that I do not smoke, a good Cuban cigar once a year yes, but cigarettes no. Paying for something that would make me smell worse than I already do, will make me sick and will kill me early, just never appealed to me.

OK, the same could be said of my Mexican food, but I continue to eat it anyway, and my noble wife suffers with me afterward.

A few blocks from my home a large field was set afire by some yahoo on the freeway tossing a lit cig butt out of his car, I would guess they thought it was a way to keep the ashtray clean, and the lit butt would be hidden by the tall brown grass in the field into which it was thrown.

Two firefighters were injured putting out the fire. Your tax dollars will pay for them to heal and any long-term recovery.

Aside from the one to two hundred fires started in California each year by smokers tossing burning butts in dry grass, what about all the litter bug smokers that toss butts on the ground and stomp on them, thinking somehow this is not trash.

Most of those butts are washed into the water supply and the toxins that leach from them are deadly to the small water bugs that the fish eat. Oh, I know, it is all that ecology junk people spout about the bugs the fish eat die, so the fish population dies off.

No, wait, you say it is other things causing the fish to die, so tossing a few butts on the ground is no big deal. Wow that logic is amazing.

One thing I love is the smoker stepping on the butt and grinding it into the ground. Somehow this ritual is equated to, cleaning it up, as if now that it is flat, it is less toxic to the water supply and looks less offensive.

Smokers on Golf Courses and in Parks amaze me also. Golf courses are as close as many of us get to nature, we get to see pristine nature at it’s best. Green lawns manicured, or a park with trees and hiking trails, oh, lets not forget the Cigarette Butts that are scattered around each green, along the trails or close to the good fishing holes.

My last trip to the golf course in Sacramento California I counted ten butts on the ground within three feet of an ashtray.

Da, da, dumb, within two steps of where they tossed their butt was a proper receptacle for their butt, but they tossed it on the ground. At least the grass was green and did not catch fire, perhaps that was the logic they used to justify littering the deep green course and pissing me off.

Smokers, help me out here with a comment for some possible reason for messing up a great golf course with your trash.

Many cities are outlawing smoking in their parks, a move that I support and write in support of often. Not because I want to punish smokers, or see them as criminals, but because those who toss butts on the ground are criminals and should be punished.

Two things to do:

1: Smokers who do not litter are going to be punished for the sins of those that litter. It is the non-litter smokers that should confront the morons who litter with their cigarettes; if enough people do it perhaps they will stop. Protect your right to smoke responsibly.

Do not get physical, and if they are flying Hells Angles banners you might want to let it go. I have found the responses from people I confront is often embarrassment, no one has ever thanked me, a few have cursed me, but I bet a few of them made more of an effort to not do it again, knowing some guy was going to call them on it.

Outside my gym a guy tossed a butt on the ground within arms length of an ashtray. I asked if he thought that was a good thing to do, he responded with a single digit gesture of annoyance. While I was changing he came into the locker room, I thought to kick my ass, his girl friend had demanded he apologize to me or she would break up with him on the spot, he promised to never do it again.

2: Support laws for things like a bottle deposit on each butt, that way there is financial incentive to pick it up, even if not picked up by the smoker, someone will pick it up.

Please let me know what you have done, or if you think it is no big deal, I am amazed by the number of teenagers that smoke and flick the butt. Of course, they have parents I can tell….

Luck and Love

Steve