Alabama Christians propose ban on alcohol sales
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_el_st_lo/prohibition_vote
ATHENS, Ala. - Voters have a chance on Tuesday to return this northern Alabama city to the days of Prohibition.
A measure to end the sale of alcohol in Athens is up for a citywide vote, a rare instance where voters could overturn a previous vote to allow sales. Business interests are against repeal, but church leaders who helped organize the petition drive that got the measure on the ballot are asking members to pray and fast in support of a ban.
Christians who oppose drinking on moral grounds believe they have a chance to win, however small.
"If it can be voted out anywhere, it will be here because so many Christians are against it," said Teresa Thomas, who works in a Christian book store.
Business leaders argue that ending the sale of beer, wine and liquor would hurt tax revenues and send the message that Athens is backward.
"Economic impact is really the big issue," said Carl Hunt, an organizer of the pro-alcohol sale Citizens for Economic Progress.
The United States went dry in 1920 after the 18th Amendment outlawed the production, transportation and sale of alcohol. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Now, less than four years after they first voted to legalize alcohol sales, the nearly 22,000 residents of Athens will decide whether to prohibit alcohol sales within the city, located about 95 miles north of Birmingham. Possession and consumption would remain legal.
Such "wet-to-dry" votes aren't unheard of, but they're rare, said Jim Mosher of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which tracks public policy issues including alcohol laws.
"In Barrow, Alaska, when they legalized alcohol sales, problems went through the roof," Mosher said. "Then, when they banned it again, it improved."
Twenty-six of Alabama's 67 counties, including Limestome, where Athens is located, don't allow alcohol sales. Besides the Athens vote, residents of the southern Alabama town of Thomasville were to cast their ballots Tuesday on whether to legalize alcohol sales.
Regardless of whether Athens winds up wet or dry, a leader of the 138-year-old National Prohibition Party is glad voters have a chance to decide. Such issues rarely make it to the ballot any more, said attorney Howard Lydick, a member of the party's executive committee.
"The beer and wine industry has very good PR," Lydick said. "Those pushing (prohibition) have been pushed aside."
The Rev. Eddie Gooch feels good about the chances of ending alcohol sales in Athens, but he isn't taking any chances.
A leader of the petition drive, Gooch urged members of his United Methodist Church to pray and fast on election day and the two days leading up to it. Church volunteers have sent thousands of letters and made phone calls encouraging people to vote "dry."
Mayor Dan Williams said the city government is making nearly $250,000 in extra sales taxes directly tied to alcohol, and the city's schools get the same amount.
Besides that money, he said, overall tax revenues have grown since alcohol sales were legalized in January 2004 — an increase he attributes partly to alcohol sales.
An upscale Italian restaurant recently moved to Athens from the nearby dry city of Hartselle in order to sell alcohol, and Williams said other restaurants have arrived since it went wet.
"It's a big deal for a small town to get a new restaurant," he said.
Gooch isn't worried about the city losing businesses or tax revenues if alcohol sales are banned. Normal economic growth and God will make up any difference if residents dump the bottle, he said.
"We believe that God will honor and bless our city," Gooch said.
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I don't think we have anything to worry about.
Gee, ya think!?
Good night, funny man, and thanks for the laughter.
Actually, there is a town in NJ that has this law. Ocean City. You can't purchase any alcohol within city limits and have to drive over a bridge to the next town. Ironically, Ocean City has a DUI problem, I believe.
Go figure.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
This is common here in North Carolina. There are three counties that border the county I live in that are "dry counties" that don't allow sales of alcoholic beverages.
These are old laws however and and more and more counties in the state are voting to allow alcohol beverage sales. We're moving into the 20th century.
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
They are old laws, stemming from the 'blue laws' or whatever they were called. It is silly. And ineffective.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
If I lived there I would open a liquor store just on the other side of city limits right on the main road and make a killing!!
Sweet home Alabama
Where the liquer is Zero proof.
Sweet home Alabama
The breatholizer waits for you
Singing songs about the Trailer park
And the wife beater shirts
If the north cant have a stereotype
What is this country worth?
Sweet home Alabama
Where Ness has been revived
Take that shot of Bacardi
And shove it up your ass
There is one thing that matters
And that is of the cross
Jesus never played "Asshole"
And he is your boss
Dont dare bounce that quarter
Into that shot glass
Dont drink your Bush beer
Or watch Nascar when you can
Sweet home Alabama
The puritains do compete
Hope to defeat the Taliban
With their justice swift and sweet.
(PROGRESS IN CONTUATION) FEEL FREE TO ADD.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Do you think that this town would consider me a liberal or a heretic for constructing apologetics posts for my blog while enjoying an ice cold Corona with lime?
Maybe the better question is why church leaders oppose alcohol consumption at all. Jesus' first public miracle wasn't to turn water into Dr. Pepper, after all.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. --Galileo Galilei
Simpsons did it
I don't get it. If the xians don't want to drink booze, no one is forcing them to.
I understand and support curtailing drunk drivers and underage drinking (although I believe that if a person can vote and go to war at 18, they should be allowed a drink if they wish).
It's kinda like complaining about TV shows. If you don't like it, turn it off. If you don't like R-rated movies, don't go. If you don't like dirty movies, then don't rent 'em.
It just seems so very simple to me.
Once again they're trying to control everyone else's lives with their own values.
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If they're Baptists, they probably would.
I've heard arguments about the Jesus / wine thing that go like this. There's wine and then there's "new" wine (which is basically grape juice that hasn't fermented yet). Jesus turned water into "new" wine. Jesus / the Jews wouldn't drink fermented wine.
Yeah, I've heard that too. Funny, if you don't believe god made the world in six calendar days six thousand years ago, you go to hell. But it's okay to believe that "wine" really means Welch's Grape Juice. That in spite of the fact that the steward scolds the groom for saving the good wine for last. There's a good reason to serve the good wine first and the other wine later when people are drunk, but there's no good reason to serve the good grape juice first.
But what's a little logical inconsistency among lunatics?
Thandarr
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I lived in Cullman for 2 years 10 months and 12 days. The blue laws pariahjane was speaking of still exist there.
I don't drink very often. I last got drunk on Labor Day of 2005 right after my friends made it back from Katrina.
Warrior, AL has 'Wayne's package store', a combination gas station and liquor store just across the county line. Every day, the paper has DUI's listed.
Cullman County has 100,000 residents. Approximately 80% live in the rural areas or other municipalities. Of the total population, less than 5% are hispanic. less than 2% are black.
After I moved, the population of atheists dwindled to zero. Even if there is one there, he/she ain't gonna tell you. those people don't burn crosses. They flat out try to ruin the rest of your life first. They don't want you to leave.
I heard a comedienne say once, "I ain't afraid of gangs in the big city. I am afraid of hicks in rural areas. In the big city, a gang will kill you. In the country, the hicks will KEEP you."
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For some reason, I think you were glad to leave.
Damn. Sounds like something out of Pulp Fiction.
I don't understand why counties/towns are allowed to do that.