See the data and statistical information on tobacco-related mortality rates regarding smoking and tobacco use
www.cdc.gov
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
With hundreds of thousands of people dying every year, should the government ban tobacco?
Has Al Gore chimed in on this?
As late as 1988, Al Gore was bragging in a speech to tobacco farmers in North Carolina, ``Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've dug in it. I've sprayed it, I've chopped it, I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it.' And made money growing a carcinogen that killed other people's loved ones. Gore made this speech, remember, four years after his sister's death. And 24 years after the surgeon general's report.
The vice president failed to mention in his convention speech that he has had a long and profitable relationship with tobacco.
greensboro.com
At a luncheon the day after his speech, Gore was challenged by Morton M. Kondracke of Roll Call to explain this jarring inconsistency. Here is his answer: " The truth is, Mort, I myself was still an example of the phenomena that I've described a moment ago. In spite of having suffered the loss, I still felt a numbness that prevented me from integrating into all aspects of my life the implications of what that tragedy really meant. And I, uh, it's a natural human failing that we all have. It's a time to fully accept the most important lessons in life. A time for a new awareness, a new way of thinking again, slowly and you grow into it. A few years after that, I surrendered the annual check that I received from . . . my tobacco . . . but I continued to receive it for several years even after her death. My father and mother continued to grow tobacco on our farm for several years after her death . . . . We experienced that numbness characteristic of loss. And sometimes you never fully face up to things that you ought to face up to. You never fully learn the lessons that life has to teach you. But part of the cause I was constantly, um, tried to think about these questions due to my career in public service. I was blessed with opportunities to come back to it and examine it over a year again. And as I did, I grew into a greater awareness of the fact that this, this same tragedy that hit my family was hitting 400, 000 families a year."
Al Gore riveted the convention last week with the story of his sister Nancy's death from lung cancer and how it was caused by smoking. Nancy Gore Hunger died in 1984. In 1988, campaigning for the presidency in North Carolina, Gore had this to say: "Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I…
www.washingtonexaminer.com
