Please forward this message to everyone you know and post it on any lists you can. Spread the word that NOW is the time to act to make Nebraska a smoke-free state.

If you want to help and are in a hurry, jump to the end of this message, cut and paste the letter you will find there and email it to your senator and governor. Of course it will have more impact if you modify at least the first paragraph before you send it so the letter is more personalized. Easy instructions on how to find your senator's email address are below.

If many Nebraskans take a little action, we could have clean, healthy, smoke-free air in all workplaces. We are a few weeks or possibly only days away from when the Nebraska Legislature will restart their debate and vote on the smoke-free bill, LB395. Only the Speaker of the Legislature knows for sure when it will be on the agenda. Time is of the essence, so act now because later may be too late.

If you believe every Nebraskan has the right to breathe smoke-free air in their workplace, now is the time to tell your senator and governor that you want them to protect that right. The tobacco companies and their lobbyists are working hard to make sure a good law is not passed. The only way our voices are going to be heard is if thousands of nonsmokers contact their elected officials and tell them they want a simple, strong and fair smoke-free law. I'm sure the tobacco companies are asking smokers to tell their senators NOT to pass a simple, strong and fair smoke-free law.

We need to tell our representatives, that is the only way they know what we want. We want them to pass a law that requires all businesses, including tobacco stores, bars, keno locations, and horse tracks to be smoke free. Employees in these smoky businesses have suffered far too long. The last amendment to LB395 that I've seen allows smoking in tobacco stores. The tobacco lobby, besides working to kill the bill, is probably trying to get that expanded to allow smoking in bars and any other business they can make a "case" for. Only with your help will we be able to stop them.

Please cut and paste the letter at the end of this message and send it to your senator. If you can, change at least the first part by adding why you think this law, without exclusions, should be passed and how secondhand smoke makes you feel. Please forward this message quickly to everyone you know so the senators hear from thousands of their constituents. If we don't tell them what we want, we have no right to complain when we don't get it!

Thanks,
Mark
 
Mark E. Welsch
President of GASP of NE, Inc.
Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution
5611 Howard Street, Omaha, NE 68106-1257   402-558-0463
Info@SmokeFreeNebraska.org   www.SmokeFreeNebraska.org