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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Still blue here

Congratulations, Hoosier lawmakers. South Carolina is now less backward than Indiana:

For the first time in Columbia, stores were able to sell beer and wine on Sundays. Some people didn't waste anytime getting in line to buy.

"You might want to sit back, watch a game or something and drink a nice cold one. Sales will be picking up," said Dennis Best.

Best and hundreds of others flocked out for the first time and bought beer and wine on Sunday in the city limits of Columbia.

The ban on Sunday liquor sales is one of the few remnants of blue laws that uncofrtably intertwined government and religion. It's time to get rid of it.

 

Comments

Harl Delos
Mon, 04/07/2008 - 1:50pm

When I lived inside Fort Wayne city limits, I had a preschooler who thought the day began at 4 AM. Left to my own devices, I typically go to sleep about 3 AM and sleep until about noon, but good parents have to make allowances.

One morning, after he had eaten breakfast, I was sitting on the porch swing, drinking coffee, and watching my son play quietly on the front sidewalk as the newspaper carrier walked by. The phone rang. I ducked inside, grabbed the phone, and stood in front door, so as not to disturb his play.

"Do you know your son is playing on the front sidewalk?", the unidentified voice said.

"Yes'm," I responded. "I was on the porch swing watching him until the phone rang, and now I'm in the front doorway watching him."

"But it's 5 AM." "Yes'm," I replied. "It's that time about this time EVERY morning. He's being quiet so as not to disturb all the lazy folk who are sleeping late."

"But it's raining!" "Yes'm", I replied. It was raining lightly, and as you might expect when it's light at 5 AM, it was a warm rain. "That's all right. He's drip-dry."

She didn't say another word. I'm sure she wanted to. She was seething in indignation that I was being so unchristian as to allow a little boy to enjoy playing in the warm rain. Either that, or she thought I was abusing him, because she never heard of those things called "germs" that cause disease, and she thought it had something to do with wearing wet clothes.

The blue laws, of course, were passed for the benefit of those who live in fear that someone else might possibly be having a good time.

If it's OK to sell beverage alcohol on Sunday, it ought to be OK to sell it all night long, too. The TV stations run all night long, factories are running all night long, and the supermarkets are running all night long. You can buy gas all night long, and some donut shops and drugstores are open all night long. So why shouldn't people who work the graveyard shift be able to buy a cold one in the middle of their waking hours, the same as everyone else?

Here in Pennsylvania, they sell alcohol on election day. Now, THAT may explain all the corruption in government. As bad as it sometimes seems in Ohio and Indiana, it's better than here in Lancaster, and incredibly good government compared to Philadelphia and Reading.

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