Tobacco Road

 --Lorraine Schneider 

Ah, bless you tax man, bless you all
You may take some but you never take it all
But if I give it all, I won't feel sad
As long as I got enough to buy a harry rag 
--Harry Rag, The Kinks

Most of them smoke maybe 40 a day
A habit Billy doesn't share
One by one they're passing away
Leaving orphans to Billy's care 
--Little Billy, The Who
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Just like Erskine Caldwell's novel, things aren't subtle here in the South.

We have recently been subjected to an anti-tobacco advertising blitz on television which feature a freak show of tobacco-related diseases, including the various cancers and their gruesome endpoints, all to the effect of scaring people out of the smoking habit.  The message seems, if you have any shred of dignity, vanity or humanity, you will not be so stupid as to start smoking the cancer sticks.

All well, good and laudable, if a tad macabre in the exploitation of the gaspers.

But it got Ranger thinking: Why do we not have a similar ad campaign showing the destroyed bodies of our soldiers and the waste that was once a fierce, proud body and mind?  Billboards abound with ramrod-straight Marines in the making and Soldiers walking tall, but not so much the amputees suffering grueling rehabilitation and Traumatic Brain Injury sufferers struggling with most daily tasks; we do not even show returning military coffins (in the name of discretion, mind.)

If the tobacco adverts show amputees and tracheotomies, why not show some Ty Ziegel's in Ranger's proposed war ads?

While the war damage is not self-inflicted, it is every bit as avoidable as the tobacco-related diseases.  Why are we so concerned about the ravages of tobacco while ignoring the ravages of elective, aggressive wars?  Tobacco is the devil's weed while soldiering is lauded, but the consequences of each can be deadly.

Tobacco and alcohol cause birth defects; war causes life defects.  We put "may be hazardous to your health" warning labels on ciggie packs, but not on recruitment posters.  Maybe "Uncle Sam Wants to F*ck You Up" posters wouldn't go over so good in the red states.

But don't we owe our soldiers-to-be this consideration?