One of the most defining and significant principles on which this country was founded is freedom of choice.

So when Harper’s Restaurant & Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., and Harrison Roadhouse, 720 Michigan Ave., extinguished their smoking sections, they were exercising that right. Trisha Riley, co-owner of Harper’s, said the move was “a personal choice” — and that’s how it should remain.

The state should realize that people who do not enjoy smoke-friendly facilities will avoid such establishments, while those who don’t mind or enjoy smoking will not be afraid to seek out a booth or table in the haze.

Similarly, restaurants are aware of their clientele and can make a choice about smoking on their own based on customer demand. If a restaurant sees little activity in their smoking section, they should be left to make the decision to either remove or maintain that section. If a business owner makes a poor judgment about smoking, at least it was their decision that they always had the option of reversing.

If a statewide ban is passed, there will be little harm to businesses’ bottom lines because the legislation would be uniform. A restaurant’s smoke-loving customer base couldn’t pick up and go to the next place because there wouldn’t be a next place. States such as New York have placed bans on smoking in restaurants and bars as far back as 2003, so Michigan would not be the first to enact such a law if it came to that.

But the fact that businesses are shutting out smoking on their own proves customers can still be drawn without allowing smoking, while those who want to continue to allow smoking should be allowed to do so.

There is a health concern element for restaurant staff and management who are around secondhand smoke for large portions of the day. But for the average customer, it is easy to avoid the health risks posed by secondhand smoke at restaurants. If secondhand smoke is a concern for certain customers, they will make the decision to avoid restaurants where smoking is allowed or sit in the nonsmoking section on their own.

Creating a provision in a statewide ban on smoking to excuse bars — where smoking is common — from the legislation would seem like a suitable compromise, but it would be difficult to define what makes a business a bar. Even places such as Pizza Hut WingStreet, 1331 E. Grand River Ave, have liquor licenses and could be considered “bars”. Such a provision could be possible if the state set up a liquor-to-food sales ratio to determine whether a business qualifies as a bar.

But what really should determine a restaurant’s smoking status are its owners and customers. If the motto “the customer is always right” still applies, then they will get what they want.