Cullman Stays Dry

Unofficial results show that voters in Cullman voted against the legalized sale of alcohol by 54% to 46%. This is the sixth time in 20 years that Cullman voters have chosen for their city to remain dry. More power to them. I probably wouldn't vote that way myself, but when it comes to community standards, one size doesn't fit all. That's the beauty of decentralized government.

I had a little fun at the expense of both sides of the Cullman referendum in an earlier post, and one comments posted in response said, "It is ridiculous that adults cannot buy and consume alcohol in the town where they chose to live. Gotta love the people in Alabama....do any of them have all their teeth?"

Now, now. That's a little over the top. There are good, legitimate arguments on both sides of the wet-dry debate. The arguments in favor of alcohol sales may very well be better, but the citizens of Cullman have every right to make that judgment for themselves. It's unfair to disparage them for protecting what they view as their city's unique character.

Why is it that people always make fun of Alabama over things like this, anyway? This state is far from the only one that allows local options when it comes to alcohol sales. Indeed, in "liberal" Massachusetts, there are 17 dry towns. One of them, Rockport, just this year petitioned the legislature to allow voters to decide the issue next April. One of the more entertaining facts about Rockport is that except for a brief period after Prohibition, Rockport has been dry since 1856, when 200 hatchet-wielding women swept through town and destroyed anything containing liquor.

When it comes to advocates for temperance, I'll take sweet Southern church ladies over hatchet-wielding Yankee women any day.