Alcohol sales on Sunday..why not? (Atlanta: attorney, house, buy)

[neil0311]

You can go to a bar or a restaurant and drink on Sunday. You can get in your car and drive home afterwards and wrap yourself around a tree or worse.

What you can't do is drive sober to a package store or grocery store and bring a case of beer home, sit in front of the TV with your friends and family, and watch a few football or baseball games (unless you buy it on Sat). The state says it's not legal to do so, and Gov Perdue agrees. The Gov thinks that sales in package stores will increase drunk driving.

Is it religion that is the cause of this rediculous thinking? Do people want to force their beliefs on others that badly? Why not let the people vote in a referendum to decide. If the majority likes the status quo, so be it.

It reminds me of the lottery in the 1980s. Gov Joe Frank Harris and others fought it tooth and nail under religious and other grounds. They made every dire prediction and argument you could make. None of it came true. Instead we have the Hope Scholarship and thousands of educated people.

So why shouldn't businesses be able to legally sell alcohol on Sunday, just like every other day of the week? What is different about Sunday, if you ignore the religious aspect which the Gov says isn't a factor?

[marmac]

Maybe next people will be claiming the courthouse should be open on Sunday and their kids should be in school on Sunday.

Seems if everything isn't open on Sundays they blame religion.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by marmac

Maybe next people will be claiming the courthouse should be open on Sunday and their kids should be in school on Sunday.

Seems if everything isn't open on Sundays they blame religion.

That's a little different- the examples you gave would actually require additional staff to operate the facilities during the added hours. Publix is already open on Sunday- you just can't pull anything out of the beer cooler.....

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Is it religion that is the cause of this rediculous thinking? Do people want to force their beliefs on others that badly?

Bingo! You win the cookie!

Sonny Perdue (governor) is a die-hard conservative Southern Baptist. Well, a convenient Baptist, but regardless, to a degree is said to be a holy roller type. THIS article explains his reasoning for threatening to veto any attempt to allow voters to vote for Sunday sales in stores.

HERE is also the AJC newspaper article about it (and how it's apparently ok to serve alcohol at sporting events to him).

The biggest laugh was a recent comment he made to the media saying that allowing voters to vote on Sunday liquor sales would be like, "Allowing people to vote for prostitution". Um - ok.

A few other things to note about the governor's past practices, though...

"January 2004: Governor Aircraft Investigation.

Dale Cardwell exposes the unauthorized personal use of state aircraft by Governor Sonny Perdue. Cardwell's investigation documents Perdue's decision to bypass Atlanta in the state helicopter because his son is running late to a high school football game. Dale's story and subsequent exposures of misuse lead Georgia's Attorney General to issue an order prohibiting the Governor and future Governors from using state vehicles for non-state business." (channel 2 news covered this a while back).

HERE is an article about a very controversial land deal he made in Florida not too very long ago.

Anyway... the point is, the guy who's not allowing voters to vote on the issue sure doesn't have a squeaky clean image himself. Oh, and for the record, he wants to get picked as the Vice Presidential running mate, too. Imagine that! Read that little tidbit HERE. So imagine - an older President who via age/health might not make it through one or two terms, and Perdue is next in line and will take over. Hmmmmm... I think not.

Whether or not someone develops a drinking problem or not or misuses alcohol has nothing to do with whether you can buy it in stores on Sunday or not. If someone has a problem, they have a problem, period. Sunday sales isn't going to "create an alcoholic".

And trust me - at the age of 14, I was run over while walking to a bus stop by someone who was drinking and driving. I am FAR more sensitive to issues like that than the average person, because that left me with permanent physical damage that I live with every day. Even with that, I realize that Sunday liquor sales has nothing to do with behavior like that. It's simply a matter of people who feel that everyone should have to adhere to their personal beliefs, and who feel that it's ok to have laws that force people to do so. Period. We need more money in treatment centers for people who have addiction problems, and, we need MUCH tougher laws against people who drive while drunk which we currently do not have.

[DisgustaTruth]

And how is there somehow a greater risk of drunk driving on Sunday than any other day of the week? THis is purely a law to satisfy religous fundametalists who, if they had their way, would bring back total prohibition.
So you can go to a restaurant and drink as much as you want, but you can't go to the grocery store and buy a six pack to enjoy while watching the game at HOME. Makesno sense at all. Hey some religions don't believe in eating pork.. maybe we should ban the sale of it on Fridays.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by marmac

Maybe next people will be claiming the courthouse should be open on Sunday and their kids should be in school on Sunday.

Seems if everything isn't open on Sundays they blame religion.

OK, then what's the reason, if not religion?????

Why can I buy booze on every other day except Sunday? And stop being melodramatic and changing the subject. No one mentioned "the courthouse being open on Sunday".

We're talking about liquor stores being open, and most would like to be open. The ones that want to remain closed can remain closed. That's what freedom of choice is about.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by DisgustaSucks

And how is there somehow a greater risk of drunk driving on Sunday than any other day of the week? THis is purely a law to satisfy religous fundametalists who, if they had their way, would bring back total prohibition.

You're right.. but here's the funny thing - next time a Southern Baptist Convention is in town during a weekend, drive by your local Strip Clubs and Liquor stores that Saturday night (even the ones that are slow usually) - the parking lots will be OVERFLOWING.

[Peelo]

Ok...so what if it is about religion? THe greater majority of Georgians agree with no alcohol sales on Sunday....its like *****s getting married or many other subjects....the majority rules, as they should. Someone spoke of "pushing thier beliefs on everyone else" yet that is exactly what would happen if the MINORITY got their way.....if alcohol were allowed to be sold on Sunday, that would infringe on the MAJORITY`s view that it shouldnt.

I`m sure some other state allows alcohol sales on Sunday and would love to have you who feel that strongly about it.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by Peelo

Ok...so what if it is about religion? THe greater majority of Georgians agree with no alcohol sales on Sunday....its like *****s getting married or many other subjects....the majority rules, as they should. Someone spoke of "pushing thier beliefs on everyone else" yet that is exactly what would happen if the MINORITY got their way.....if alcohol were allowed to be sold on Sunday, that would infringe on the MAJORITY`s view that it shouldnt.

I`m sure some other state allows alcohol sales on Sunday and would love to have you who feel that strongly about it.

So it is about religion, huh? But those who don't agree with you should just pack up and head to one of those liberal, godless states like....South Carolina?

GA is one of only a handful of states that doesn't allow at least sales on Sunday on a county by county basis. Forty something other states have shed their outdated "blue laws".

I'm fine if it's put on the ballot and defeated, but we're not allowed to vote on it. I think you're living in a dream world, because if it was put on the ballot this year, it would be overwhelmingly approved, just like the lottery was nearly 20 years ago.

Remember the fight over the lottery? A handful of vocal politicians and other people tried to block a vote. Remember the rhetoric on the lottery? I do. We were going to have organized crime, an epidemic of addicted gamblers, and poor people on the streets starving because they spent the food money on lottery tickets. Did any of that happen? Of course not.

If you don't want to drink on Sunday because you have a moral issue with it, then fine with me. If you want to spend your day in church on Sunday, then fine with me. However, you have no right to restrict my freedom based on your religious beliefs. If I want to get up at noon on Sunday and go get a case of Bud, bring it back to my house and drink myself into a stupor watching football, that should be my right as long as I don't drive or disturb the neighbors.

EDIT: BTW, I hardly ever drink alcohol, so this isn't a drunk defending his turf.

[marmac]

Minnesota is a very liberal state and is packed full of bars. Many are open on Sunday.

However, even in liberal Minnesota ( which has gone Democrat every presidental election since 1972 ) you can't buy alcohol to take home on Sundays.

Minnesotans who need liquor in their homes on Sunday, buy it before closing on Saturday.

Liquor has a shelf life longer than one day. Apparently people in Georgia haven't discovered that fact.