Rantin' About Rights....

Walking out of class and down the long hall of the Humanities building today I remembered how we used to stand in the hall and smoke cigarettes before class (back in my undergrad days). There were ashtrays built into the brick walls. Today, they are gone. Today, we wouldn't even consider smoking just outside classrooms, filling the hallway with secondhand smoke. We don't even need "no smoking" signs in buildings anymore. It's an understood "don't." So here's the question. Were we just too dumb 20 years ago to know that secondhand smoke was harmful? Did we not consider it discourteous to smoke in public thoroughfares? Did we just magically get smarter as the years went on? No. We didn't just magically get smarter. It was harmful back then and we knew it. I believe it's because we respect the rights of citizens more these days. Really. We are gaining more and more rights, right? We have the right to eat in a restaurant without cigarette smoke being blown in our faces by the guy next to us. We have the right to walk out of smoke-free buildings and not be blasted with cigarette smoke just outside the door. We also have the right to smoke in our own homes, should we choose. We still have the right to smoke around our babies, but...really....should we?
There is, however, a "right" that I don’t have. When am I going to get the right to eat in a restaurant without hearing cell phones ring and folks talking on them obnoxiously loud? How about in an elevator? Most annoying is seeing someone weaving around on the road or going too damn slow and then seeing that they are on their cell phone. When will I get to watch a movie without at least one cell phone ringing and then seeing the blue-white glare from the screen light up the darkened theater? Apparently, no time soon.
I was hiking recently in the Smokies on Mt. LeConte. It was beautiful. Folks actually take cell phones on hikes and talk on them! What about emergencies, you say? Sure. Understood. But must you conduct business while you're hiking? Please. It’s a right I’d like taken away from all hikers. Work is what you go hiking to get away from. Right?