Dear Editor,

My hope is this letter will be published because it has weighed on my heart. I hope you, the reader, will look forward to extended reading on this issue of life. I will call it, “the ultimate brain washing.”

Let me start with when I was about ten years old growing up in Tuscaloosa I was allowed to go to the movie theater most Saturdays (this was when you got a ticket, candy bar, big box of popcorn and a large soda for about 50 cents, 1952).

To get to the point! Almost every actor smoked. In every movie, I as a young teen thought it was very manly or romantic to smoke, so I saved enough to buy a pack of Lucky Strikes cigarettes. The first time I took a draw, I came very close to

choking to death, some people probably thought I should have. But I was persistent.

After a lot of coughing, I finally got the hang of it. That was the beginning of the brain washing for me and millions of other young kids just like me. Next part coming soon is the smart way the tobacco company realized how they could manipulate not only the young, but old as well. Best part coming!

Roland Hamilton

Selma