A couple of weeks ago, I pulled into my neighborhood Safeway strip mall to pick up a couple of things before work. Parked next to me was a beat-up old van with two women who were smoking up a storm. There was also a baby in one of those carrier things. I felt bad for that baby. Basically, the baby was trapped; forced to breathe all that awful secondhand smoke.

A little while later, as I was coming out of the store, the two women were walking in--still smoking! Well, I don't know what came over me, but I said, "You shouldn't be smoking around that baby."

Needless to say, they were shocked. And then the one woman told me it was none of my business. I told her it was. (I kept on walking though, they looked kind of tough.) She then said something about me not paying for it. (The kid? The doctor bills?)

By that time, I was getting in my car. I wish I had said something about, "It takes a village ... ."

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

When I told people about it, their reaction was positive, although they also said something about putting myself in danger.

Anyway, now one of our state legislators is trying to make it child abuse to smoke around kids. I'm not sure how laws would change anything, but I do know I'm glad I did what I did.

Maybe this "mother" will think about it. Maybe she'll complain to somebody about the crazy bitch at the grocery store trying to tell her how to live. And maybe someone will actually say, "You know, that crazy bitch is right."

Maybe.