Editorial

Second-hand smoke silences another voice

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Saturday nights were an ordeal for those of us who preferred Elvis Presley or the Beatles to big-band music.

If Dad and Mom kept control of the channel knob on the family's single black-and-white TV, it was more than likely tuned to ABC where "The Lawrence Welk Show," delivered a frothy selection of "champagne music."

Usually, at some point in the show, Irish tenor Joe Feeney performed his version of "Danny Boy" or some other standard.

Many Nebraskans may not have realized that Feeney was one of their own, born to an Irish-American family in Grand Island and singing in the church choir

After he won several singing contests at the University of Nebraska, a tape of his singing landed him a guest spot on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1956, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Feeney sang for five presidents at the White House and for Pope Paul VI in 1975 at the Vatican, as well as for 25 years on the Welk show and venues from Carnegie Hall to Disneyland. His performances continue to entertain on PBS rebroadcasts.

Despite the clean-cut nature of his music, although Feeney himself never smoked, he often found himself performing in smoky casinos and nightclubs.

His family says that finally caught up with him April 16, when he died of emphysema at a hospice in Carlsbad, Calif.

This year, the Nebraska legislature passed LB395, which will ban smoking in restaurants and bars after June 1, 2009.

The argument can be made that the lawmakers' action further eroded the personal freedom of those who enjoy a cigar or cigarette after a fine meal out or while having a drink at a bar.

There's no question, however, that LB395 will benefit people like Joe Feeney.

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  • Thank God! Why should we as nonsmokers try to be healthy and then have to go into a restaurant or bar and be exposed. We'd like to have a drink or eat out every once in a while too! Smoking all together I believe should be made illegal. It's a drug and has been proven to be very dangerous to who smoke and who don't. PLEASE STOP SMOKING!

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Thu, Apr 24, 2008, at 1:11 PM
  • i don't think that it is fair to smokers to be essentially banned from public places. Just because somebody smokes doesn't mean that they are a bad person or that they shouldn't get the same rights as everybody else. Alcohol is a drug why don't we ban and make it illegal. Heck why don't we just ban all things we don't like, bugs, fatty foods, babies who cry on planes? When will the whole war on smoking just turn into what i see it going towards? segregation places that only smokers can go and places only nonsmokers can go, OH NO!! smokers don't drink at the non-smoking water fountain!!

    -- Posted by billybobi on Thu, Apr 24, 2008, at 1:29 PM
  • Smoking should be illegal??????? Someone needs to get a grip on reality. The government will never ban smoking, to much money is made through taxes. And rural citizen, take a little personal responsibility "if you don't want to breath second hand smoke don't go where people are smoking" Just an idea.

    -- Posted by remington81 on Thu, Apr 24, 2008, at 4:29 PM
  • Wow! Pandora's box is open again. What we need, it seems, is a law, which allows a person to pass a law against something they do not like. That way, in about thirty days, being alive will be against the L A W!

    But then, if a person was able to outlaw everything they didn't like, then their name would be Hitler, or Stalin, or Nebuchanedzar.

    Yes, smoking is bad for the health, as it enhances the probability of illness' that kill. But then, please show me a person who didn't smoke, drink, or one of all those things someone doesn't like, that didn't die at the end of their life, no matter the age of the ending.

    As an ex-smoker, of almost fifty years, I can only plead that no one start that nasty habit. At todays prices, one must be completely stupid to start (but that is my opinion). I do, however, truly wonder about the people who seem to have no concept of what the term 'Legal' means. If smoking, or any other social behavior, which you hate, is that important, contact your Government Representative, and get another law passed; even if it will do no good. At least then, the habit of putting others down, for the sake of putting others down, can further erode the American freedoms we, still, to some extent, enjoy.

    Oh yes, from what I can tell from the opinion article above, Joe Feeney must be somewhere at, over the age of seventy. Isn't that the age when we start loosing the majority of people our age, no matter the cause? Oh well! I pray he was a Christian. Then, there is nothing for anyone to worry about.

    Shalom in Christ, to anyone and everyone, Arley W. Steinhour USN(Retired)

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Thu, Apr 24, 2008, at 5:12 PM
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