DEAR ABBY: My heart went out to "Guilty in Antigo, Wis." -- the smoker who was made to feel like a leper by society because she smokes.
I am not a smoker, but my mother was. I have inhaled my share of secondhand smoke, which, in turn, may have made me more tolerant of smokers today, but non-smokers should check their own bad habits before looking down their noses at smokers.
Put me next to a smoker anytime on an airplane, in a restaurant or theater, before you put me next to a squawling baby or a loud, obnoxious person! Most of my friends who smoke go outside to do so out of consideration for non-smokers, but how many people do you see actually leaving a restaurant or a theater when their child acts up?
What I'm saying is, we all have habits and/or actions that may annoy others.
If smoking is the only bad habit "Guilty in Antigo" has, I'd love to have her over for coffee and a cigarette sometime. If she can handle my nail-biting and gossiping, I can handle her cigarette-smoking. -- NOT PERFECT IN WESTMINSTER, CALIF.