To the EditorI strongly disagree with Harvard University Medical School Prof. Allan Brandt as to who is responsible for smoking ("Allan Brandt talks about the rise of cigarettes," Nov. 20 issue). I cannot escape the notion that no one can successfully undermine personal responsibility except the consumer.

All of us have the option to look at advertising critically. I don't believe that a cigarette sitting in its pack kills anyone any more than I believe that a rifle on its rack kills anything.

I urge my fellow Brandeisians to reject the knee-jerk application of collective responsibility and to look not in their stars, but in themselves.

The answer to tobacco is simple avoidance, not complex blame. The latter is something that was drilled into me as a Brandeis student, and I have long since rejected it.



-Paul Trusten '73