It’s 1964, and smokers own the air. They can dump their smoke anywhere. And it is a rude host who puts on a party and doesn’t have ashtrays at the ready. Nonsmokers and shallow breathers are regulated to the kitchen or outside. People who don’t like smoke are the problem, not the polluters. TV is a smokescreen for the tobacco industry, constantly preaching about the God-taken right to cloud up our world.

It’s 2014, and noisemakers own the sound environment around us, and they can dump their acoustic garbage anywhere. It’s a rude city that doesn’t allow them to hold their concert or set off fireworks near our back doors. If we complain, we are the problem, not the polluters.

The air around us is clearer now because Congress got a backbone and told TV to just say no to tobacco money. With cigarette ads off TV, the tide began to change, and now the air is clearer in every public space. Smokers step outside because we have a right to the cleaner air our lungs were designed for.

In 2014, government gives lip service to protecting the natural sound environment the human ear was designed for. The city of Augusta quotes a noise ordinance jury-rigged from noise standards written by a site planner in 1984 and full of more holes (exemptions) than a block of Swiss cheese as a reason for allowing the sound barrier to be broken.

The state Department of Environmental Protection protects our hearing inside its building with “quiet please” signs on every door and partitioned cubicles on every floor. It would protect our hearing outside its building too if only the Legislature told it to.

But change for the better did happen, and still can.

George Hunt

Augusta

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