When I first moved to Georgia and heard that you couldn’t buy booze on Sunday, I thought, “Well, that’s kinda nice.” I mean, I like to have my wine but I can buy it Monday-Saturday. And it just felt so Southern, like a throwback to when times were simpler—when people went to church on Sunday and the stores were closed and after church everybody just sat on their porches and drank peach tea. Ah.
But four years later I realize it’s not nice at all. It’s just plain WRONG.
It’s not wrong because I can’t live without alcohol on Sunday.
It’s not wrong because of the inconvenience it causes when I inevitably throw a bottle of wine in my grocery cart on Sunday, only to get turned away by the cashier.
It’s not even wrong because of the potential tax revenue Georgia loses by not selling alcohol on Sunday.
It’s wrong because churches shouldn’t be telling us what to do. It’s part of a little thing called “the separation of church and state.”
If the only reason Georgia isn’t selling alcohol on Sunday is because it’s a holy day, well then that is faulty reasoning.
This has always been a hot topic here but lately it’s back in the forefront again because we have a new governor who is willing to put this to a vote.
The other day there was a Yes/No debate in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both of which I thought were weak.
The guy in favor of it played up all the money Georgia could bring in if we voted in favor of Sunday alcohol sales. His numbers were in the low millions which 1). Didn’t sound all that impressive and 2). May not even be accurate. I mean, wouldn’t the same people buy alcohol, just spread it out over seven days rather than six?
So while I agree with his “yes,” I thought he should have also mentioned the biggest argument of all—it’s WRONG!!
The “no” guy went into his religious rant, all of which isn’t valid: “Keep Sunday sacred,” etc. To that I say, “If you want Sunday to be sacred, don’t buy alcohol. Don’t go shopping. Just go to church. But don’t tell the rest of us, much less the government, that they have to do it too.”
He also made this argument that anti-Sunday-alcohol people love to make: Aren’t six days a week enough days to buy alcohol?
Yes. In fact, six days are really enough to buy lots of things. Take underwear, for instance. If we couldn’t buy underwear on Sunday, we could certainly wait until Monday. So why not limit the days that we can buy underwear?
Because that would be wrong. So is limiting the days we can buy alcohol.
It’s a free country. We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion and I think the state of Georgia needs to give us back our freedom to go to church on Sunday and pick up a six pack on the way home.
5 comments:
Ha. You are awesome. At least in Texas we can buy wine and beer on Sunday (after noon).... but inevitably, I want to make a margarita on a Sunday and I'm hosed.
In Texas, they are debating whether to open up liquor sales on Sunday. Like Liz said, we can get our beer/wine, just after noon. (Mildly embarrassing to try and buy wine at 11:30a)
The Austin paper had a debate between 2 liquor store owners on being open on Sunday. I thought the best argument was to let the owners decide if they want to be open Sunday or not!
Front page of the AJC today: "Sunday Alcohol Sales Corked, For Now."
I knew I should have written my persuasive blog sooner!
I agree with you completely, Writinggal. Also, if I like Texas to cover the spread against Georgia in a football game and somebody else disagrees, the government should have no business in making our wager illegal.
Sounds like the 6 years I spent in Utah. They have some WEIRD laws when it comes to alcohol. There is no separation of church and state there.
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