The StarLedger
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Newark, NJ 071021200
Reader Forum letters: 200 words max
Speaking Up columns: 500 words max

Overbearing government

One bold headline in your March 21 edition proclaimed, "Tobacco firm to a
id
in war against rivals." The tobacco firm is the Liggett Group. Who is the

Liggett Group going to aid and in what war? Has the government in fact
declared war on a business (tobacco) that is a legal business, that provide
s
billions in tax revenue to the treasury and that employs many thousands of

American workers?

If the government declared war, then President Clinton and Congress shoul
d
pass and publicize a declaration of war to clarify the goal of the war. I

suspect that the goal is a total prohibition of the sale, possession and us
e
of tobacco in the United States. What next? Why not declare war on meat and

snack food companies whose products when "used as advertised" promote death

through atherosclerosis? More deaths per year occur from nonsmokingrelate
d
heart diseases than from smoking. "War" against legitimate businesses smack
s
of socialism, which is where we are headed.

Let the free market reign and let Americans make their own informed choic
es
rather than have the government decide what's best.

C4Richard Dondes, East Brunswick