I've written letters to the editor of my local paper a few times now in the last few months and every time they've been published. Back in January I wrote in about a new law in Georgia that puts everyone's proof of car insurance on a computer database and according to that law no one would need to carry insurance cards anymore. In fact, the law actually said that if you weren't listed in the database as being insured the card wouldn't do you any good, you'd get ticketed or even worse. Right before the law went into effect, the papers and tv news started saying to go ahead and keep the insurance cards because they were having some problems with the new database....hmmm.
I also wrote in about the many unsyncronized traffic lights in Macon and have had people come up to me and tell me they read that letter and how much they agree with me. Unfortunately the lights are still badly timed, and the lights at one particular intersection had their timing changed to actually make them worse.
My last letter, sent in via email Friday, was published in today's Sunday edition. Getting it published today I thought was pretty significant because not only did I not wait the required 30 days between publishings but it was also published today. When you read it, you'll see.
From the Macon Telegraph, Sunday May 11, 2003 Letters To The Editor:
Sunday blue laws
The debate in Perry whether or not to allow alcohol sales at restaurants on Sundays brings up something we've all lived with long enough and need to finally change. So maybe someone can explain it to me. Here we are in the 21st century. But to this day we still can't walk into a store and buy a six-pack of beer on Sunday.
Have any of you stopped to think just how silly that is? It's absolutely ridiculous. Does prohibiting alcohol sales on Sundays also prohibit the consumption of alcohol on Sundays? Of course not, we all know that the drinking doesn't stop, although sometimes I get the impression that there are some who would like to see that happen. People just stock up on Saturday. So why do we have this law?
Because the churches say so, that's why. It's a religious law, plain and simple. Well, sorry, folks, but there is something called "separation of church and state," and the Sunday prohibition flies right in the face of it. Now churches have every right to ask their members to not buy or consume alcohol on Sundays, although I can't find one single passage in the Bible to support that particular rule. But they have no right to turn that rule into a law that is enforced statewide.
The Sunday laws have got to go. This is a free country. Those who object to Sunday sales are free to not buy alcohol on Sundays or any other day and free to not patronize businesses that sell alcohol on Sundays. But they don't have the right to stop the rest of us from buying it on one particular day each week.
Mike Ganas
Macon
Mike.