non-smoker or intolerant?

When someone identifies themselves as being a 'non-smoker' Jolie, 27, always equates this as meaning 'I am intolerant of smokers' and she is appalled that society has now divided itself in this way.

"It's cultural apartheid similar to the dreadful Muslim non-Muslim divide," cries Jolie. "Non-smokers not only set themselves up as being superior to smokers and haughtily refuse to mix with us on any level but they also think they have a right to be rude and nasty to us."

"Why should it matter if you're a smoker or a non-smoker?" asks Jolie. "Okay, maybe it matters if you've got lung disease and there's a possibility you may pass a smoker and suffer temporary distress, but in all other situations it should be as irrelevant as religion, sexual preference or skin color."

"It wasn't so long ago that black people had to sit at the back of the bus to spare white people from being contaminated by them -- and in many cases black people weren't even allowed on the bus or in 'white only' establishments."

"Even worse things happened to homosexuals."

"There are now laws to protect people from discrimination on account of skin color, religion and sexuality," says Jolie, "and because of these laws it seems that the intolerant people in our midst -- the sort of people who would otherwise be enslaving blacks or bashing up gays -- have turned their venom on smokers."

"I'm looking for a job right now and I am appalled to see job application forms asking me whether or not I smoke."

"Isn't this sort of thing as abominable as asking me about my sexuality, religion or race?" asks Jolie. "Apparently, it's perfectly legal to discriminate against smokers -- even the government has anti-smoking employment policies. This is scary!"

"Socially, I am experiencing more and more discrimination because of smoking, too," sighs Jolie. "At first, everyone accepts me and the guys are all over me like a rash -- but later in the evening when I announce that I'm going outside to have a smoke some of the faces of the men and women in the group turn really mean and ugly."

"It's almost as if I am announcing that I have some dreadful communicable disease when I go out to have a smoke," sighs Jolie. "They behave like they have been contaminated by speaking to me or something. It's crazy!"

"A couple of years ago smokers never even bothered to go out for a smoke and nobody's face turned mean and nasty -- even though some of them must have been seething inside, just waiting for the smoking ban to be enforced in order to vent their intolerant spleens openly."

"When I make friends I judge people by their manners and sense of humor and nothing else really matters to me."

"It is offensive that someone should identify themselves as a 'non-smoker' in the same way that someone would seek to identify themselves by any other category."

"It is offensive because it is setting up a barrier, adopting a superior attitude and showing intolerance towards those who do not fit into your high and mighty box."

"If there were some special dress that non-smokers could wear to properly identify themselves and set themselves apart from the 'inferior' smokers I'm sure they would prefer that to having to announce their intolerance," says Jolie. "You see, they want everyone to know they are superior and what better way to do so than to wear the sort of garb that the radical Muslims do."

"When you know someone is Muslim by the dress he or she wears you don't offer them a pork pie or a shot of whiskey, do you?" asks Jolie. "In the same way, if all the non-smokers wore white sheets and hoods or something you wouldn't offer them a cigarette, would you?"

"Actually, what the non-smokers really want is for smokers to identify themselves," sighs Jolie. "Like wearing Star of Marlboro on our sleeves, or maybe a tattoo on our wrists?"

"If smokers were easily identifiable wearing Stars of Marlboro or tattoos then the non-smokers wouldn't make the mistake of thinking we are one of them. They wouldn't waste their precious breath talking to us."

"It all sounds very reasonable, doesn't it, when you look at the situation from their point of view but life is never 'one' point of view."

"The world is full of an incredible diversity of people and cultures but it is not this diversity that leads to terrorism and wars," explains Jolie. "What leads to terrorism and wars is plain old intolerance such as that shown by those who overlook common humanity and set themselves apart by identifying themselves as something others are not."