Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Sunday Alcohol Sales



Last year, voters around the state of Georgia were allowed to vote on whether or not they wanted to allow alcohol sales on Sundays.  The motion passed in nearly all places where the vote was held, and often by a pretty large margin.

Personally, I was against the Sunday alcohol ban.  The so—called blue laws, which have nothing to do with the color blue, but, instead, is a disparaging reference to rigid morality left over from the 17th century, were enacted to codify a specific faith’s morality into law.   If this weren’t true, why were so many of these laws passed in the south and Midwest in the mid to late 19th century to specifically “protect” Sunday?  Listen, if you are so weak in your faith that you are unable to resist having a beer before going to church on Sunday that’s a you problem, not a me problem.  The rest of us who don’t go to church on Sunday would like to continue on with our lives and don’t need to be restricted by your choice of faith.  It is not mandatory to drink on Sunday, but the way the Saints are looking this year it helps.

While reflecting yesterday on this change in local laws it finally hit me: the reason why we should have continued the Sunday alcohol ban.

I lived for several years in an apartment on Ponce de Leon Ave.  There were many homeless people in the area.  They were all hustling for change and you knew, you just knew, that these guys were spending the money you gave them on booze.  This was, for the most part, true, except for Sundays when no alcohol could be purchased.  In order to get high on Sundays, the homeless would go to the drug store and buy a bottle of mouthwash to drink.  Some brands of mouthwash contain 27% alcohol by volume.   That’s enough to get you where you’re going.

So, even though the Sunday alcohol sales ban wasn’t keeping the homeless people in my neighborhood sober, at least one day a week they had pleasant, fresh breath.  For that reason I think the ban should be reinstated.

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