Kevin I love me some holidays and observances, both official and unofficial. Since today’s observance of The Great American Smokeout 2024 is so important, I’ve decided to make it a public service announcement instead. It also ties in w/ yesterday’s World COPD Day 2024. Before I go any further, I should mention that when I talk about tobacco, I’m talking about commercialized tobacco, not the tobacco used in ceremony for many Native American/Indigenous communities. There’s a big difference between the two, and commercialized tobacco is never an ok substitute for ceremony tobacco.
The Great American Smokeout is a challenge to go w/o smoking for a day, every year on the third Thursday in November. The American Cancer Society’s post talks about how the Great American Smokeout came to be in 1970, when Arthur P. Mullaney, one of the faculty members at a high school in Randolph, MA came up w/ the idea to have ppl give up smoking for a day, and donate the money they’d have otherwise spent on smoking to a scholarship fund for the school.
A few years later, Lynn R. Smith, a newspaper editor in Minnesota, called November 21st, 1974 “Don’t Smoke Day.” I’m not sure what was going on in the years that passed since Mullaney’s fundraising initiative, but I’d hope that ppl in other cities caught wind of the grassroots idea and decided to try it themselves.
After that, what came to be the Great American Smokeout officially started in 1976 in California, and it went nationwide in 1977. This wasn’t easy, since smoking was so normalized and commonplace at that time. In the early years of this initiative, the tobacco companies would have ads on TV, which Congress put a stop to that shyt but good.
At least here in the US, that is. Some countries still allow tobacco ads on TV, and other countries banned it only w/in the past decade or two. It’s disgusting how these tobacco companies operate, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the moolah for that lot.
The response to the Great American Smokeout from local government agencies helped lay the groundwork for other smoke-free advocacy legislation and movements, like banning smoking on 6hr or less domestic flights in 1990, and passed at the federal level. In 1994, it came on the news that tobacco companies admitted that they made their horseshit products as addictive as it gets, and that it was all on purpose.
It figures. It also matches up w/ the signage that came out in recent years over by the tobacco stuff in the convenience stores. The signage says that a federal court order mandates that ABC and XYZ tobacco companies must state facts about their dangerous and deadly wares, and these were facts they refused to publicly admit to.
The Great American Smokeout isn’t just any initiative. It’s an initiative that saves lives, and highlights the inequities among communities the tobacco industry generally targets as potential customers. For instance, the American Cancer Society website talks about how those of certain socioeconomic means, those who identify as LGBTQ+, Black communities, those w/o college degrees, Native American/Indigenous communities, and active-duty servicemembers tend to have higher smoking rates than other groups.
The tobacco companies know, and they’re capitalizing on it. Care may not always be accessible for those among these groups, which means any diagnoses that come about as a result of smoking may be caught in the later stages, and as such, a more grim prognosis than they otherwise would have.
It doesn’t have to be this way. It never had to be this way.
So, what can we do? A good place to start is to do like me and never start smoking. If you do, know that you can quit. You’re not beyond help, and smoking isn’t your lot in life. You’re worth more than becoming a statistic in US-fuckin-A Today. Make today your Day 1, and focus on today. Here’s some tools from the ACS for anyone out there who’s interested. Just like the ACS website says, quitting isn’t easy, and the path to succeeding will look different for everyone.
Better yet, quitting smoking is a great way to say FUCK YOU to the tobacco industry, the way I figure it. By not smoking, it’s that much less revenue they’re getting, more money for us, and our vote to put the bastards outta business. It’s a win-win, imo. Besides, the tobacco industry can suck my imaginary balls.
Over to you, readers. How are you gonna celebrate the Great American Smokeout 2024? Is this somethin that hits close to home for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and takeaways, so drop it all like it’s hot, and let’s talk.
