Long title, I know. Bear with me.
If you would ask any of the local leaders (around North AL) if they consider themselves to be "free market conservatives," I am pretty sure most would say "yes."
However, we have many local laws banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays.
Quite honestly, I view alcohol as a "vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels"(kudos if you caught the reference, albeit an easy one), but I don't think government regulation over the marketing and sell of any goods at any time should be allowed.
Do lawmakers (and local town Baptists) believe that regulating alcohol on Sunday prevents people from drinking on Sunday? If people want alcohol on Sunday, they can drive to another town (effectively spending a nice sales tax to another city and county) on Sunday or stock up on Saturday.
To balance the ridiculousness of the ban, let me raise a question.
Are the Sunday Protestants being slightly discriminatory with their choice of banning Sunday sales? Afterall, the Sabbath of our Seventh-Day Adventist and Jewish citizens begins Friday at sundown. If we're going to ban alcohol sales, let's at least be consistent.
Just in case some of these legislators are reading this blog,I'll put it into tinier words and an easier analogy for them--with something "less controversial" than something like alcohol (which Jesus drank, by the way. People tend to forget that Jesus didn't take a shot of Welch's out of a tiny plastic cup with his penny-sized cracker.)
If people want to buy, oh let's say...gum.
Yes, people go to the store to buy gum. Lawmakers decide that people are spitting too much gum on the sidewalks, so they decide to regulate the sale of gum on...Wednesdays. Will banning the sale of gum effectively reduce the gum consumption? My guess is..no. They can go Thursday - Tuesday to pick up their gum. In fact, they can buy as much gum as they want and spit it wherever they want. They can even, therefore, chew their gum on Wednesday. And consume too much gum. And fill sidewalks with it.
These local laws are regressive and, quite frankly, stupid.
-W
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1 comment:
As someone who doesn't drink alcoholic beverages, due mostly to religious reason, I agree with you.
I've always found those laws at the best silly, at worst, hypocritical.
Banning it for one day? What, are they one-day-a-week Christians? Ban it all the time? Well, that's at least a little more consistent.
God gave us free will. Whether it's there to drink or not shouldn't be the determining factor in my choice as to whether I choose to.
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