It was a banner year at the Bender household when troubled high-schooler John Bender received his Christmas gift from his father: a carton of cigarettes.

"Smoke up, Johnny!" the elder Bender said, as told in John Hughes' seminal 1985 work "The Breakfast Club."

If legislation introduced by Michigan state Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, finds its way to ratification, the Benders - and smokers in general - would be left stamping out butts and shivering in the cold outside of a restaurant before being admitted entrance. The Michigan Smoke-Free Dining Act would eliminate smoking in all public areas of Michigan restaurants, and in doing so, make the smoking section an archaic aspect of the dining experience.

But the Benders are people, too, albeit people who have made the unfortunate decision to smoke. Smokers deserve to light up in Michigan restaurants, assuming restaurant owners make a conscious decision to allow smoking in their restaurant and forgo complaints from nonsmokers.

To be sure, smoking - cigarettes, pipes, cigars or otherwise - is a habit that is medically and socially proven to be offensive to the nonsmoker. And secondhand smoke, the toxic result of sitting in close proximity to a smoker, is a proven killer responsible for about 3,000 cases of lung cancer a year in nonsmokers, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

But a private decision is just that - private. In the case of banning smokers from exercising their habit in a public restaurant, we have to part company with Basham and supporters of the bill.

Smokers are fully aware that their habit offends the noses and lungs of others. In our estimation, the reasonable smoker is cognizant of this and is more than willing to accommodate others in nearly all public settings, should their secondhand smoke become troublesome.

The offending smoker in a restaurant is typically not found straddling the partition to the nonsmoking area puffing on five cigarettes at once, blowing smoke in the other diners' faces. Conversely, the nonsmoker is typically not found to be stocked with anti-smoking campaign stickers and handheld fans to direct secondhand smoke around their nostrils.

Smoking, in essence, is a notorious compromise between parties. Smokers know they stink, but they're our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters - and we put up with the temporary inconvenience in the name of tolerance.

Granted, smoke does not halt itself at the barrier of the smoking section before anthropomorphizing into a cartoon smoke ring swimming furiously against the air, like Wile E. Coyote, to stay in its rightful section. Smoke is an inevitable part of the dining experience in a public restaurant, especially for the handful of nonsmoking tables with the bad luck to be seated in smoke-shot.

But the core of the issue is clear enough to identify as a clear indictment of a personal choice - not only on the part of the smoker, but also on the part of the restaurant owner to permit smoking in his or her establishment.

If the Michigan Smoke-Free Dining Act doesn't see the light of day in the Legislature, it looks to be another banner year for John Bender and his smoked-out dad.