Friday, October 3, 2003
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Friday, October 3, 2003 |
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Let voters decide Sunday beer,wine sales The idea of allowing a restaurant here in Coweta County to serve beer and wine on Sunday seems to me a very modest one. In principle, I am all for Tom Parker and any other restaurant owner getting this opportunity. But even if the county attorney is wrong and Parker's legal advice is right, that only means the county commission has the authority to legislate Sunday alcohol sales without a vote of the people. Whether or not the commission ought to use that authority is another matter. This is the Bible Belt, where a lot of people do feel strongly about selling booze on Sunday. It would be wrong for a handful of commissioners to simply legislate on this matter, effectively shoving their opinion down the throats of almost 100,000Coweta residents. I'm on Parker's side, therefore, about the what but I'm on County Commissioner Mutt Hunter's side about the how. And if the voters oppose the change, that's that. Parker's remarks about separation of church and state are ill-conceived; the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly authorizes the states to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages, and that includes state constitutional and statutory provisions leaving such matters up to local entities, as in Georgia. If it is constitutional for Coweta County to prohibit alcoholic beverage sales on, say, Tuesday but no other day of the week, it is also constitutional for Coweta County to prohibit alcoholic beverage sales on Sunday while allowing sales on all other days. All Parker accomplished by raising an illusory church and state issue, is antagonizing the commissioners and potentially thousands of Cowetans whose support his request needs in order to be granted. I'd say this issue needs another champion, because Tom Parker is obviously the wrong man for the job.
Kevin McGehee Newnan
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