Lemme hold a Kool?

 "Lemme hold a Kool" There's a phrase that goes back more than 55 years for me. I first heard that from a black student at Leto High School in 1969. It was the start of my junior year at Leto. In my sophomore year, I never heard that phrase. That is because in my sophomore year, the designated "smoking area" was at the dumpster out behind the cafeteria. In my junior year, the administration ended the "smoking area", so the student smokers moved the "smoking area" to the restrooms.

As one might expect, the restrooms became unusable in just a couple of days after school started. This is where a black student asked me on the third day of school, "Lemme hold a Kool." I responded, "What the hell are you talking about?" He shot back, "Cigarette, man. Do you have a cigarette?" "No, I am here to take a leak. I don't smoke." He laughed and said, "Thanks anyway, homes" and moved on. I quickly realized that the only restrooms that you could use without choking on cigarette smoke were those down near the main office.

"Lemme hold a Kool" was my first thought when I saw that the federal government is seeking to ban menthol cigarettes. Smoking data indicates that more than 90% of menthol cigarettes are smoked by blacks. In my part of North Carolina, the preferred brand is Newport because they are made in this area.

After all these years, why is the federal government suddenly interested in banning menthol cigarettes? Is it about their concern for the health of black people? Did they just suddenly realize that menthols were the preferred smoke for blacks? Why take this action now? Why do the same folks who want to legalize smoking marijuana want to ban smoking menthol cigarettes?

At places where cigarettes are still sold, a federal court has ordered RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris to post signs about the dangers of smoking. Did the same court order the federal government to post signs about their involvement in the cigarette business?

Why didn't the court order the federal government to disclose that for many years it had subsidized and regulated the raising of tobacco in this country? Did the feds disclose that for years they had provided soldiers with cigarettes in their daily rations? What about the trillions of dollars in tax money that the federal, state and local governments have reaped from the sale of cigarettes? What about all of the jobs that the manufacture, distribution and sale of tobacco products have created? If not for cigarettes, Winston-Salem would be a wide spot in the road to the mountains and Durham would be a four way stop sign on the way to Raleigh. Duke University would still be Trinity College in Randolph County and Wake Forest University would still be a little school actually in Wake Forest. 

I am not defending smoking. I think that it is a stupid habit. I just don't understand why people raise weeds, cure them, process them into cigarettes and then light them and suck the smoke into their lungs. That just doesn't make sense to me, but that's just me. I have never smoked, I never even tried. I have never actually set my ass on fire either, but I am pretty sure that I wouldn't like it. My father was a heavy smoker, he died at 39. He was a slow learner about smoking. He and his second wife were both smokers. They were both smoking in bed one night and only he was able to wake up and escape the resulting fire. Did that cause him to quit smoking? Of course not. He smoked until he died a few years later.

You may have guessed by now, but I don't think that the ban on menthol cigarettes is about smoking at all. It's about the changing face of the voting pool in the United States. Blacks are no longer the monolithic voting block for Democrats that they have been since the 1960's. Trump actually has a large degree of support among black men. So how do the liberals who dominate the government respond? They are going to punish black men by taking away their menthol cigarettes. Let's face it, they knew many years ago that smoking cigarettes was bad. Why target the cigarettes favored by blacks? There are only two possibilities, and neither is good. First, they don't think that blacks are smart enough to decide to quit smoking on their own. Or they are punishing blacks for stepping off the Democratic plantation. What's next? A ban on malt liquor?

If the liberal government establishment gets their way, brothers will soon be reduced to asking, "Lemme hold one of those cowboy killers." That's a Marlboro for those who don't know.