Iwas curiously watching a 1964 episode of a children’s comedy show when I suddenly realized how, even as a cigar enthusiast, I have been influenced by the anti-smoking movement.

In the episode, two thieves that have just escaped from prison proceed to steal two cigars from a gentleman’s pocket. Happy with their new acquisition they go on to gleefully light up right in front of a group of children and begin to converse with them as they puff on.

Although the scene was funny, something within me was alarmed to see two adults smoking cigars in a children’s show! Yes, I admit to doing a definite double take, but then it also hit me: How did we ever survive for hundreds of years without all the anti-this and anti-that movements? For goodness sake, I grew up watching Tom and Jerry smoking stogies and even cigarettes without ever even noticing it. I didn’t even begin smoking cigars until my 30’s, after going on a Caribbean cruise where I finally had my first.

The point to me was clear though. The anti-smoking lobby has been effective and relentless over the years while the rest of us were either apathetic or unaware how much things are changing. Frankly, its alarming.

I read an article today in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, where they interviewed a top global anti-tobacco spokeswoman. Doctor Judith Mackay, who has been named among TIMES’ most influential people of the year, states her dream in the headline’s subtitle: “to have a tobacco free world”. As to how they would achieve such a dream, she stated, there is only one way: to impose dramatic taxes and tariffs on all tobacco products and force people to give up purchasing them. She went on to assure the reporter that the global anti-tobacco campaign is just beginning.

Couple this with the looming SCHIP bill, still being fought for in congress and you know that this piece of legislation has nothing to do with children’s health care. What this bill is, is the latest attempt by the anti-tobacco Nazis to surreptitiously push their agenda forward by masking it with a “Children’s Health Care” headline.

There are many ways to take care of children’s health care that don’t involve a crippling tobacco tax! But there’s only one way to mask an ideologically motivated dramatic tax hike these days; you have to link it to some sympathetic cause. The fact is that as a children’s health bill, the SCHIP expansion doesn’t even make sense and in more ways than one is self defeating. The measure is only good for one thing: to put everyone to sleep while they push an aggressive anti-cigar measure.

But the SCHIP bill was vetoed and that was that, right? Wrong! They have continued reworking many aspects of the bill in an attempt to bring on board the more liberal Republicans who supported the President in previous votes, and the latest headlines indicate that an agreement is close at hand. Without removing the mega tax on cigars, they are managing to accrue enough support in other areas of the bill to override the all but certain Presidential veto.

On other fronts, the anti-tobacco lobby has been successful at shutting down cigar lounges and clubs, and even passing laws that make it illegal to smoke a cigar in the privacy of your own home. In Europe, cigar magazines are being sued by anti-tobacco forces for “glorifying cigar smoking as a fine pleasure” and for “distribution of propaganda in favor of tobacco”, and private cigar club websites are being required to display annoying popup reminders that “tobacco kills”.

Yet, as much as we are under assault, it seems that there is no mobilization in the cigar industry or in aficionado circles to put up a good fight. I have personally written to my representatives as I know many others have as well, but before this is all over, more will have to be done, and I hope we’re all up for a good fight.

After all, the only thing worse than a crushing defeat, is a crushing defeat with the added shame of inaction.