How can someone get all het up and righteous about their god-given right to smoke? LOL! Of course, you have a right to smoke if you so desire. You also have a right to drink yourself into a hangover every night, overeat till your heart stops, not wash till you stink, snort cocaine till your nose doesn't work, not pay your bills till your power gets turned off, and do any number of irresponsible and completely self-destructive things...just because you want to.
But don't pretend that you don't have a problem, because you do. You're addicted to a very harmful substance that damages your health every single day, makes the skin on your face get leathery and old-looking before its proper time, damages your vocal chords, damages your lungs...and no animal in the entire world of nature is foolish enough to deliberately inhale smoke...nor is any human toddler so foolish. Nope, only an adolescent human being programmed by the tremendous brainwashing forces of cultural conformity and bravado and peer pressure can be that foolish.
Native Americans smoked. They did so as a prayer. They did not smoke continuously all day long as do modern people. The mixture they smoked was far less harmful than commercial tobacco of today, because it did not contain various additives to make it burn smoother, taste better, and have a longer shelf life.
If you consider tobacco to be a sacrament, Native American style, then consider smoking it AS the Native Americans did...once or twice a day for a short time, instead of intermittently all day long. They were not addicts, the modern smoker is.
Modern tobacco is deliberately MADE more addictive with additives by the companies that market it. Why? They want to make more money. Period.
And you are their chosen target.
Why be righteous about it?
If, on the other hand, you are bugged by people coming and harassing you in the park, I can entirely understand that. They are overstepping their bounds. I don't harass people I see smoking outdoors. I feel sorry for them inside, but I don't harass them or bother them about it. It just makes me feel sad and weary when I see them...like you would feel if you saw your children being self-destructive, and knew you could do nothing about it.
Mark Twain? He was just enjoying being an outspoken curmudgeon, a rugged individualist, and doing whatever the hell he wanted to. Fine with me. He was a great writer. What do I care whether or not he smoked back then? It's a different time now. Most men smoked back then. Virtually all women did not. They were wiser than the men. That doesn't surprise me. :-) Men have always tended toward self-destructive bravado.
Nowadays we see it reversed. More girls are taking up smoking than boys. That's the power of modern marketing for you. The tobacco pushers must have thought the gates of heaven were opening when it finally became socially acceptable for women to smoke too...twice as much profit to be made!