With all the preaching lately about tolerance, diversity, and sensitivity to minorities, there still remains one minority group in our society against whom intolerance and hatred seem to be perfectly acceptable.

The members of this minority come from all walks of life. Men, women, young, and old alike. Their common bond is their lifestyle choice. And while we are told to tolerate and understand the diversity of almost every other group, somewhere along the line it became completely permissible to discriminate against this minority group.

Right here on the UWEC campus, where the chancellor sends out e-mails reminding the campus to have tolerance for racial minorities, every building openly displays signs encouraging discrimination against this other minority. If they choose to practice their lifestyle, they are forced out into the open, for all to see.

Our federal government, and even the State of Wisconsin, regularly run ads to warn us peons who can’t think for ourselves about the dangers associated with practicing this lifestyle, and soliciting the help of the public in ridding our society of the purveyors of this lifestyle.

Now if all this were practiced against, say, blacks, or homosexuals, we would never stand for it. We would denounce the intolerance. We would march in protest of the persecution. But, no, this minority isn’t defended. It is denounced over and over again.

Of course, I’m talking about smokers.

Is there anyone who hasn’t at least heard about the Surgeon General’s warnings about smoking? There are also some warnings on containers of alcohol about the dangers of that product.

But, so far, we see no warnings on candy bar wrappers or on pizza delivery boxes about the dangers associated with overeating or consuming too much sugar in our diets.

Diabetes is probably the fastest growing chronic disease in America today, yet we see no warnings on television from the Wisconsin Sugar Control Board. Why not? Isn’t diabetes and its associated chronic diseases just as dreadful and damaging to society as cancer? Having battled both diseases, I would say diabetes is the more insidious of the two.

How long will it be, if it hasn’t already happened, before we see some greedy law firm, or an attorney general with higher political aspirations, launch a class action suit against “Big Sugar?” Don’t we need to recoup the costs of treating people for diabetes, dialysis, blindness, kidney transplants, etc? Shouldn’t “Big Sugar” have to pay for those costs born by the states to treat the people who develop the diseases from “Big Sugar’s” products?

Actually, smokers need our encouragement. They have been a persecuted minority far too long. They contribute so much to our society. The taxes they pay support children’s health care insurance, and health care for the elderly and indigent.

And let’s be honest. If no one bought any tobacco products, the rest of us would see our taxes jacked to make up the shortfall left from the elimination of excise taxes on tobacco. Of an average pack of cigarettes, only about 27 cents of the purchase price goes to the tobacco company. The rest is almost all taxes and overhead.

America used to stand for freedom. Are you old enough to make decisions for yourself without the heavy hand of Big Brother on your shoulder? If you’re going to preach diversity and tolerance for lifestyle choices, let’s be consistent about it.

If we have to tolerate one adult’s lifestyle choice, we should be tolerant of them all.