From the Cracker Squire Archives -- "This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise."

The AJC's Political Insider (now a/k/a Jim Galloway) reports:

Gov. Sonny Perdue has just put out an op-ed style piece intended for use by Sunday newspapers across Georgia, on the topic of allowing local communities to decide whether the retail sale of beer, wine, and liquor on the Christian Sabbath should be permitted.

No mention of the governor’s support for the portion of the bill that would permit Sunday beer sales in a Gwinnett Braves minor league stadium, and no “You should plan ahead” argument. The governor emphasizes public safety this time. We hear Sunday sales proponents will argue that the New Mexico data cited by the governor is faulty.

Here’s what has come out of Perdue’s office:

Do no harm. It may sound like a simple concept, but it is one that I am afraid supporters of Sunday alcohol sales may have forgotten.

Above all else, I believe it is the responsibility of the Governor and the General Assembly to reject a piece of legislation that hurts more people than it helps.

Allowing the sale of alcohol in grocery stores as well as liquor stores on Sundays will do far more harm than good. In fact, other than those who profit from those sales, it will not help anyone.

The governor being both for and agin alcohol sales on Sunday reminds of a 5-1-07 post entitled "This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise," that reads:

As reported in a 3-26-07 post, the 25% of grocery chain customers who do their shopping on Sunday will have to wait for Sunday alcohol sales.

With both parents usually working, and Saturday devoted to softball, soccer or whatever with the kids, Sunday has become the day to fill the kitchen cupboard for many Georgians.

And how long must they wait? At least beyond next year; since next year is an election year, this issue is dead for the 2008 legislative session.

With the issue dead for now, this is as good a time as any to recall the speech on distilled spirits delivered by the Mississippi legislator Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat in 1952 as reported by the AJC's Political Insider on January 25, 2007:

“You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.

“If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

“But;

“If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

“This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.”