Goddamn Yankees....

Y'all just don't like Southerners, do you?

We are trying to support ourselves down here. Remember...this is one of the poorest "regions of the nation." We have an industry that has been doing mighty well for over a century.

Now is not the time, motherfuckers, to decide it isn't good enough.

Nobody has ever forced anybody else to pick up a pack of cigarettes.

Nobody.

Y'all are complaining about advertising? Why aren't you trying to educate your kids to see past the subliminal manipulation....that you apparently think is okay in every other sphere of advertising?

Why are you spending all this goddamn money trying to tear an industry down when you could be helping other people straighten themselves up and not need the "crutch" or whatever that you claim tobacco is?

My God.

This is just fucking ridiculous. Just fucking ridiculous.

To make matters clear. I am a Southerner. I guess that is clear by now.

I live in an area that is highly dependent on tobacco farming. Some of these people can't grow anything else on their property.

What's the matter, we send a couple of Reynolds-educated kids (courtesy of the charitable contributions, etc., that the Reynolds family is constantly pouring out on this neck of the woods and then some) up there North to get educated and y'all get scared we might start something again?

Oh lord no, we're not supposed to know anything, are we?

When will you get the idea that it is about power and it always will be?

I consistently request nonsmoking seating. I get upset when I am forced to be around smokers.

But don't blame me because your goddamn grandmother didn't have the nerve to put the stuff away. That is a matter of individual discipline, and I don't care what the hell levels of addictive substances y'all say were put in there.

Grow the hell up.

I've lost two grandparents to smoking. I can say it. Neither of them was ready to fight it off. Let them go. It was their choice.

I can sure see why they turned around and stalked off from the negotiating table. Y'all weren't even trying to be fair.

First time the damn South starts to pick its head up and y'all heave to with the taxes again....

My God. My God. My God....