According to the experts-which means folks with advanced degrees who get paid to study this stuff-around 18 percent of Americans still smoke cigarettes.
Living in the Twin Cities, however, you would be forgiven for believing the figure was much higher.
Fortunately, most places ban indoor smoking. But you can see them most every day, huddled outside, clustered around office and retail store doorways-often too close under current ordinances, at least on the Texas side. They puff away and then discard their spent cigarettes, often to light another immediately.
We aren't going to go into a long sermon about the health risks of smoking. Everybody knows it's not good for you and can lead to all sorts of problems-some of them the last problems you'll ever face.
No, we won't preach. Smokers are adults, at least for the most part, and can make their own decisions.
But show some courtesy.
It seems everywhere you look in the two Texarkanas, you find cigarette butts. Everywhere. Streets, sidewalks and parking lots all over town are littered with the things.
Even when business owners have thoughtfully provided a receptacle for smokers to use, it looks like most of them just flick their cigarette butts to the ground.
While we understand that some poor souls who scavenge for the few last puffs might appreciate those careless ways, most of your fellow citizens do not.
So if you must feed your habit, please show some responsibility.
Show some respect for others. Dispose of your cigarette butts properly. And if there is no place nearby to do so, take them with you and find a receptacle. Casually tossing a butt to the ground is no different than littering with any other kind of trash. It's just not right.