“I wish we could pass a law that would require people to go to church on Sundays,”

That's what Alderman Roy Perkins said in opposition to the proposed amendment to the alcohol sales ordinance which would allow the sale of alcohol in restaurants and taverns (but not stores) at the Board of Aldermen meeting last night. The amendment passed 4-3, making Sunday sales all but inevitable. You can read the Starkville Dispatch article at the Starkville Now blog here.

The day before the vote, the Starkville Daily News published a letter by William L. Smith which began: "Satan is alive and well as far as the liquor industry and crowd is concerned, but he is a defeated foe, and, sad to say, a lot of good people are going down with him because they know not the truth." The opponents of Sunday sales used rhetoric such as this often and in a way that made it clear that they were actually opposed to the drinking of alcohol anywhere, any time. They tried to back up their opinions with bogus statistics about driving fatalities and even violence against women. Not statistics really, but just assertions.

As a happily married, middle-aged father of two who does most of his drinking at home, I can tell you that I didn't care all that much about Sunday sales. But this is a college town, and the weekend is the weekend. I can tell you that a couple of times we have had out of town guests and have gone out on a Sunday thinking we could eat at a restaurant, forgetting that most of them are closed. Now when Mom and Dad come to town for a game they can stay the whole weekend, because there will be a lot more going on in town. The prohibition on Sunday sales helped Starkville have that "sense of place," (a sense that is diminished now that Outback and Olive Garden are probably now on their way), I think on balance it was a sense that we can afford to lose. The pronouncements of Roy Perkins and those who think like him can be seen as an embarrassment to the town: does he not know that Jews worship on Saturday, and Muslims on Friday? Does he think God will be happy if I sit in a pew on Sunday to fulfill a legal obligation? However he represents a significant and vocal part of the community, as the evidenced by the debate. I think it is a reasonable amendment.