Previous Story
No good can come from having more alcohol in our community
Posted On 15 Jun 2016
Comment: 0
To the Editor:
Although there has been far too little publicity about it, the citizens of Williamsburg are scheduled to have an election on June 28, 2016. The issue is whether to have wide open alcohol sales, just as Corbin now has. Unless I, or someone I know, should be killed as a result of a “Yes” vote, it will make little difference to me since I am 83 years old, don’t drink anyhow and all my family live elsewhere. Nevertheless, in over 26 years as a judge and a total of 57 years as an attorney, I’ve seen far too much human misery caused by alcohol to remain silent when any increased availability of that substance is proposed.
“He never hits me except when he’s been drinking.” “Judge, I wouldn’t have done that I’d not been drinking.” “I didn’t mean to do it, I’d just had a little too much to drink.” “I don’t remember what happened, I must have blacked out.”
These and countless others like them are heard frequently in nearly every courtroom.
They reflect broken homes, battered wives and children, traffic deaths-and criminal acts.
Since alcohol is generally available now you may wonder what difference it would make. Beyond any doubt the major difference is the impression upon a young child who grows up seeing the refrigerator in his home stocked with beer or a bar full of hard liquor, playing a prominent part of his family life and alcohol prominently displayed for sale in his grocery store or the family gas station. The message is that alcohol is not only normal but a good thing. That message however, is a lie
A “Yes” vote will make our families less secure, the mothers and children in them less safe, their marriages less enduring, our crime rate ever larger and our highways more dangerous
It only takes a little effort to go to the polls on June 28 and vote “No.” If you live in Williamsburg, I ask you, for the future of our city, the safety of our families and the safety of all to please do that and ask your friends to do the same.
Ronald B. Stewart
Williamsburg
