Please remove Tobacco CEO from the University of Florida Alumni Board
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Author:
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Send To:
Dr. J. Bernard Machen, President of the University of Florida
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Sponsored By:
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This is a petition of love for the health of all humanity and
for ethical living.
Tobacco is by far the leading cause of preventable death, disease
disability, and property damage in the world. Nicotine is one of the
most addictive substances on the planet. People typically "decide"
to start using it when they are teenagers who are unaware of the true
consequences.
Tobacco executives like Susan Ivey know this and make their living by
what they benignly call "marketing," which is really just convincing
vulnerable people to make a decision that, once made, is extremely
difficult to reverse, and will eventually kill or seriously disable
more than half of them. What Susan Ivey celebrates as "success" means
that she is very adept at providing false rationalizations to those
who might otherwise fight their addiction before it kills or disables
them. When Susan Ivey and others like her "succeed," measures that
would prevent addiction, help addicts achieve freedom, and protect
those the addicts would otherwise drag down with them and the property
they would destroy are delayed and more lives are permanently destroyed.
Tobacco may be a legal product, but at other times in history so were
slavery, child labor, wife-beating, and denying women the right to vote.
People who opposed these were ridiculed as zealots and extremists. If
what is right and what is legal were the same thing, history would
remember Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela as criminals
and Judas Iscariot, Caligula, and Adoph Hitler as heroes.
What Susan Ivey does may be legal, but it is not by the wildest
stretch of the imagination ethical or worthy of being honored or
celebrated. Please spare a thought for how history will view people
like her and those who, like the University of Florida Alumni
Association, supported what she stands for: willful deceit of
the vulnerable,death, disease, and destruction.
We ask that you, as President of the University of Florida, please
take the courageous action to remove the CEO of RJ Reynolds Tobacco
from the Board of Directors of the University of Florida Alumni
Association, and renounce the professorship in international business
recently endowed by this tobacco industry CEO who makes her living by
destroying the lives of others.
With tobacco predicted to painfully slay one billion this century, how
can an outstanding place of learning such as the University of Florida
allow a death trader to cast such a prominent dark shadow?
We sign this petition out of love and respect for those whose lives
have been and will be devastated by tobacco.
for ethical living.
Tobacco is by far the leading cause of preventable death, disease
disability, and property damage in the world. Nicotine is one of the
most addictive substances on the planet. People typically "decide"
to start using it when they are teenagers who are unaware of the true
consequences.
Tobacco executives like Susan Ivey know this and make their living by
what they benignly call "marketing," which is really just convincing
vulnerable people to make a decision that, once made, is extremely
difficult to reverse, and will eventually kill or seriously disable
more than half of them. What Susan Ivey celebrates as "success" means
that she is very adept at providing false rationalizations to those
who might otherwise fight their addiction before it kills or disables
them. When Susan Ivey and others like her "succeed," measures that
would prevent addiction, help addicts achieve freedom, and protect
those the addicts would otherwise drag down with them and the property
they would destroy are delayed and more lives are permanently destroyed.
Tobacco may be a legal product, but at other times in history so were
slavery, child labor, wife-beating, and denying women the right to vote.
People who opposed these were ridiculed as zealots and extremists. If
what is right and what is legal were the same thing, history would
remember Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela as criminals
and Judas Iscariot, Caligula, and Adoph Hitler as heroes.
What Susan Ivey does may be legal, but it is not by the wildest
stretch of the imagination ethical or worthy of being honored or
celebrated. Please spare a thought for how history will view people
like her and those who, like the University of Florida Alumni
Association, supported what she stands for: willful deceit of
the vulnerable,death, disease, and destruction.
We ask that you, as President of the University of Florida, please
take the courageous action to remove the CEO of RJ Reynolds Tobacco
from the Board of Directors of the University of Florida Alumni
Association, and renounce the professorship in international business
recently endowed by this tobacco industry CEO who makes her living by
destroying the lives of others.
With tobacco predicted to painfully slay one billion this century, how
can an outstanding place of learning such as the University of Florida
allow a death trader to cast such a prominent dark shadow?
We sign this petition out of love and respect for those whose lives
have been and will be devastated by tobacco.
174 Signatures
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Mike Sawyer
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jamey aebersold
- Comments
- Higher education and tobacco should not mix.
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Bobby Ramakant
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Lanita Clarke
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Nancy Cronk
- Comments
- Tobacco selling is immoral, and its CEO is not welcome in higher education.
- Zip Code
- 80015
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Douglas Roy
- Comments
- Make a real stand, U of F!
- Zip Code
- 40504
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Stephen Hansen,MD
- Comments
- ?Republican,are you?
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Albert J. Benson
- Comments
- It is only when we can remove the influence of tobacco from our lives that we can be truly free.
- Zip Code
- 92691
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Sera Kirk
- Comments
- В
- Zip Code
- В
- Users
- В
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Vanessa
- Comments
- I haven't experience a love or any friends dying from tobacco (cancer) but i do support this cause. Thank you for getting the word out.
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Barbara J. Lemley
- Comments
- It is an honor to sit on a university board, however, I agree it does not present the correct image to have a person from an industry that does promote an unhealthy product to sit on an educational board.
- Zip Code
- 32055
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Daniel Lynch, Ph.D.
- Comments
- My son has lung cancer. I blame secondhand smoke.
- Zip Code
- 54902
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Dr. Scott Tomar
- Comments
- I am proud to be a professor and department chair at UF, but embarassed that the University would put a tobacco company CEO on its Foundation's Board of Directors and establish an enowed professorship bearing her name.
- Zip Code
- 32606
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Andrew Barnes
- Zip Code
- 32350
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Craig E. Cheney
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Tommy R. Andrews
- Zip Code
- 36371
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Lynn R. Rosenfeld, PhD
- Comments
- Please act with courage
- Zip Code
- 35243
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Stephen I. Langer
- Zip Code
- 32653
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Ryan O'Mara
- Zip Code
- 32608
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Patty Young
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Marie Cantlin
- Zip Code
- 32340
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Edmund Miller Jr
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Sandra Sue McCoy
- Comments
- As a 60+ year old who has worked in marketing for most of my adult life, I uderstand the conundrum of choosing money over ethics. I feel that this woman has made the wrong choice in her career path. I am ashamed that she represents a Florida Institution funded to a large degree by my tax dollars and would like to see her removed from any board that has anything to do with teaching our next generations. What kind of example does she set for graduates? She has chosen to earn her substantial income from destroying others, adding to our tax costs due to health issues related to smoking ills and yet is touted as a "community leader" - please! There are a lot of boards she would be much better suited to represent - just not in education or youth focused entities. I'm a life-long non-smoker who has watched the devastation smoking has brought to many family and friends and the trail of sorrow left behind.
- Zip Code
- 32119
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jeremy dunlop
- Zip Code
- 32119
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Janiece Davis
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Elissa Nieves
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Earl Neal
- Comments
- I am 92 years old--a non-smoker.
- Zip Code
- 47130
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Megan Jourdan
- Zip Code
- 34234
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Tiffani Hill
- Zip Code
- 33525
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wilton j aebersold
- Comments
- Having been watching Big Tobbaco for twenty years, no one in her position should ever be allowed a voice in educational matters. Tobacco people are self-serving and deal in a product that addicts and kills prematurely.
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Britni Hill
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Kara Green
- Comments
- I believe that if you are in college you should have enough knowledge about life to know that tobacco use is not the most intellegent decision to make
- Zip Code
- 32401
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Lori Maness
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Brian Hinaman
- Zip Code
- 33763
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Paul H Hinaman
- Comments
- Take it from a exsmoker, who now has COPD
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Nancy Birchall
- Comments
- As a Florida Alumna and a professional advocate against the manipulation of Florida/s youth by the tobacco industry, I strongly agree that the university I love should remove this tobacco CEO.
- Zip Code
- 32086
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Gabriela Murza
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Luis F. Velez, MD, PhD
- Comments
- Legitimizeing an industry whose only purpose is to make a scientifically poven dealy product when used as inteded is not an ethical step for a University. How much can we compromise academia in the name of profit?
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David Powell
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Courtney Boynton
- Zip Code
- 78404
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Leroy J. Pletten
- Comments
- See tobacco effects overview at http://medicolegal.tripod.com/effects.htm
- Zip Code
- 48313
- Users
- В
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Patty Young
- Comments
- 2nd hand smoke kills-off with her head!
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Dave Johnson
- Comments
- Tobacco is ALREADY illegal. It is ILLEGAL to poison people, no matter how slowly you do it!
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Bill Thompson
- Comments
- Those who grow, manufacture, distribute, sell or otherwise promote the tobacco drug should be prosecuted for the crime of murder and genocide of the human race. Tobacco should be banned.
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Dianne M. Berlin
- Comments
- Standards at our institutions of higher learning need to be made with common sense and in ways that will retain the integrity and credibility of the institution. Time to raise the standards at the University of Florida
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Diana Inagaki
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David A. Rives
- Comments
- Dear Dr. Machen: If you take the simple step of changing the name of the Susan Ivey professorship to the "Merchant of Death" professorship, I'm sure no one would have any objection to it -- or its sponsor. Otherwise, do the naive world a favor and get rid of it as a professorship -- and her as a Board Member. Thank you.
- Zip Code
- 28804
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Dennis L. Dan Ireland
- Zip Code
- 35216
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Micah Berman
- Zip Code
- 06511
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Karen Gutierrez
- Zip Code
- 55116
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174
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