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A parade and meeting took place for to protest state smoking legislation that went into effect this year in Illinois. The new legislation which went into effect January 1 prohibits smoking inside and up to 15 feet outside public establishments, including clubs, bars and restaurants.

The meeting organizer was Gary Wachtel. At the meeting he presented the purpose of the event. He admitted that smoking ban violate the people freedom.

"What we want to do is raise awareness of loss of freedom, the freedom of choice," said Wachtel.

He added: "We’re fighting that freedom of choice lies with the property owners and the patrons of Illinois businesses, not with the government, and they’ve taken that freedom of choice away. We have a government that cannot pay their bills and should be concentrating on that, on their budget, and on encouraging people to come to Illinois, not discourage them here and making them leave Illinois."

Smokers from Illinois protested because they as other people have rights and it was not fair that smokers should have to go outside just because others do not like it.

Carmon Zook, of Olney, said: "We’re people just like everybody else. They’re telling me I can’t smoke in my car with my kid. Until they want to pay my car payments and pay my insurance payments, I’m gonna smoke in my car. It’s not like I leave my windows all up and, you know, suffocate my kids with it. I crack my windows. So, it’s not right."

All Protestants held placards with signs that said: "Smokers have rights!" and "We the people demand our smoking rights back!"

Some participants smoked along the way, held signs and wore T-shirts expressing their disapproval of the ban.

Olney City Councilman Pete Weber said he was hoping to see more small-business owners in attendance, because he feels they are heavily affected by the smoking ban.

Calling people over to the courthouse steps for the rally, Wachtel warned them not to stay in the street to smoke or they might get hit by cars. He said that those can kill, too. The crowd applauded and laughed. "Yeah, let’s ban cars!" one person shouted.

Farley, who was holding a small American flag at this meeting, said that smoking is not as harmful as has been stated and may, in fact, be beneficial in some cases. And also there are fewer instances of obesity among smokers, fewer cases of Alzheimer’s disease and fewer cases of Parkinson’s disease and smoking is not a primary cause of lung cancer.

"This is not a communist country," Farley said. She said she did not want to live in a communist country and she did not want her children or grandchildren to either.

The government needs to let the people make the choices for themselves this is the message of this article.