To the editor:
Re: "Start fining butt droppers," May 30.
I was right with Sandra Thomas until I got to "Smokers being smokers." I'm a smoker and haven't thrown a butt on the ground since 1991. I twist off and stamp out the burning, biodegradable part and the butt goes back in my pack if there's no ashtray around. 1991 is the year I went to Singapore, where smoking was insanely prevalent but no one threw butts on the ground. While heavy fines are part of the reason for that, there are also public ashtrays on every commercial city block, as well as garbage cans. Lumping smokers together as having a singular mindset entirely misses the point. Where there's a public ashtray, the majority use it and you can see them giving the stink eye to those who don't. Expanding that dynamic requires addressing the lack of civic responsibility and courtesy among those who lack it, rather than unfairly ascribing that to a larger group. Targetting smokers as a group simply reads as an unfounded attack and alienates those who aren't part of the problem.
Kyle Hawke, Vancouver
