A proposal by Marshalltown middle-schoolers to restrict tobacco advertising has caused a bit of an uproar among parts of the business community there.

It seems these precocious youngsters have decided that they don’t like cigarette ads being posted where anyone can see them.

According to an article in The Des Moines Register, the students have come up with two proposals.

The first one would ban outdoor tobacco ads that use color and/or logos while the second would make it illegal for any indoor ad to be seen outside.

It looks like there is indeed a limit to how much empowerment is a good thing.

While it is admirable that these kids have decided to make their voices heard, it does not mean that what they are saying is any more reasonable.

Like it or not, we are talking about a legal product.

Every time we start to debate about the Internet, drugs or television violence, someone always has to ask: “What about the children?”

Well, everything in this world cannot be sanitized for the sake of the children.

This would not even make a good test case for the First Amendment.

It is a blatant violation of the freedom most businesses have to advertise their goods and services.

In this day and age when there are so many more things to worry about, it seems somewhat petty to outlaw signs which inform consumers that “Cigarettes Are Sold Here” just so we can all feel like we are doing something to combat the evils of smoking.

It could be argued that cigarette advertising is not the last stand of free speech in this country.

Why should we be concerned about the rights of a few convenience store owners to tout their cancer sticks, anyway?

Well, the answer is pretty simple.

In a country like ours, where the ability to express yourself is fundamental, it isn’t popular speech that needs protecting, it is the speech that people DO find offensive that requires our vigilance.

Tobacco advertising around schools requires some regulation, of that there can be no doubt.

But the problem of tobacco ads is pretty small in comparison to the one we will have if we keep chipping away at the First Amendment every time we find someone else’s exercise of it objectionable.