 |
news |
||
Teens used to oppose Sunday alcohol sales in Ga.[February.23.2009]'Bible says it's wrong,' youth tell state Senate committee Roughly 40 teens wearing stickers proclaiming their allegiance to the coalition of “No Sunday Sales” attended the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee hearing on SB 16. The bill would allow a county-level referendum where residents would decide if they should expand their county’s alcohol sales to Sunday. Almost a dozen teens spoke, most repeating variations of the argument that Sunday sales would give teens more time to illegally procure alcohol and that alcohol use is bad and against the Bible’s teachings. “I am opposing this bill because I think that alcohol is wrong,” said Jacob Chambliss of Blairsville, Ga. “The Bible says that it’s wrong.” Several speakers argued that teenagers are somehow incapable of illegally procuring alcohol during the weekday, and therefore Sunday sales would make alcohol twice as easy for teens to buy alcohol — giving them Saturday and Sunday. “It does double the time that Georgia youths could possibly purchase alcohol,” said teenager Amanda Staples from Gwinnett County. State Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) has told the story many times that he drafted the legislation for Sunday sales after watching a soldier graduate from Fort Benning on a Sunday who was also getting engaged before being deployed to Iraq. When he tried to buy beer to celebrate the engagement, the store clerk told him the store could not sell him beer because it was Sunday. “Perhaps they could have planned ahead,” Staples said, drawing a long stare from Harp in response. The students were there as part of Teen Pact, a socially conservative organization whose publicly stated goal is to groom the next generation of Christian leadership. Although several of the teens were wearing Georgia Christian Coalition stickers, a Coalition spokesperson denied any involvement. The Georgia Christian Coalition led the effort to ban gay marriage in the state in 2004. Pastors called the bill a “Pandora’s Box” of sin brought forward by lobbyists paid by big retail outlets looking to create one more crack in the state’s morality and further burden small business owners. Rev. Willis Moore, executive director of Georgia Council on Moral & Civic Concerns, said those supporting Sunday sales “sounded like a small toddler who does not get his selfish way.” “What matters to us, and what should matter to our leaders, is not selfish, nor petulant, nor greedy interest. What matters to us is the common good. What is before us a Pandora’s Box of enormous threats to the common good,” Willis said to the committee. Despite the obvious show of force at the state Senate committee hearing, the bill is moving forward with a broad base of bipartisan support. The bill has 16 cosigners, only 11 short of a majority in the Senate. The Young Democrats of Georgia and Georgia Young Republicans recently endorsed the bill. Lobbyists representing the distilled spirits, grocery, retail and several chambers of commerce have put support behind the bill. While the teenagers often repeated each other while speaking of Christian opposition and increasing the availability to underage drinkers if the bill is passed, professional lobbyists and spokespersons made detailed points about the economic impact of lifting the state’s prohibition. Henry Colley, vice-president of Spirit Foods, told lawmakers that his company would not open another grocery store in Georgia while Sunday package sales are prohibited. “We’re not before you asking for bailout, we’re before you asking to level the playing field,” Colley said. Supporters also stressed the bill does not authorize Sunday sales, but allows counties to choose to have a referendum to allow package sales of alcohol on Sunday. Natalie Shore of the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce said they aren’t asking to change the law, they are asking for a vote. “In metropolitan areas like Gwinnett, local governments can choose to put the issue before the voters, but a dry county that does not already have Monday through Friday sales will not be affected by this legislation, except for the fact they would be protected from having Sunday sales forced upon them by future legislation,” she said. |
||
|
