Public Comment

Written in appalled recognition of the Berkeley Rent Board’s interference with efforts to protect low income renters from secondhand smoke.

impaired and addicted
the Rent Board agrees
is how renters must live
by the Rent Board’s decree
we live in apartments
so what can we do
if our neighbors are smokers
then we’re smokers too

Chorus: what’s wrong with the rent board
the science is in
did they all miss the memo
can’t public health win
we may live in apartments
but we matter too
we can’t hold our breath
without all turning blue 

our children are suffering
but the Board doesn’t care
because smoking restrictions
give them such a scare
if stepping outside
seems like such a tough test
just try having cancer
or holding your breath (chorus)

secondhand smoke does
immediate harm
but the Rent Board can’t work up
a lick of alarm
they say go sue your neighbor
for clean air instead
sounds like a great plan
unless you are dead (chorus)
 

the Rent Board’s proposal’s
pathetically weak
keeping smoking indoors
makes our health prospects bleak
if they pass a weak law
there’s something we can do
vote them all off the board
and just get a fresh crew (chorus)

the Rent Board just doesn’t
know beans about health
and the truth is some of them
are smokers themselves
which is fine it’s their choice
long as my air’s smokefree
I just can’t figure out
why they want to kill me (chorus)

the Rent Board should represent
nonsmokers too
that’s what their charter
instructs them to do
stand up for clean air
get the smokers outdoors
and stop being tobacco
industry whores (chorus)