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Bill Haber / AP file
A poster at The Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans features Carry Nation, the hatchet-wielding teetotaler who began her crusade against drinking by busting up saloons in Kansas.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Even in the Kansas town where turn-of-the-century teetotaler Carry Nation's legacy is enshrined, the influence of the hatchet-wielding crusader is waning.
Residents in Medicine Lodge, where Nation lived for about a decade and home to the Carry Nation Home Museum, approved a measure this week to allow Sunday liquor sales. The vote, which was expected to be certified Friday, allows the sale of beer and liquor on all Sundays except Easter.
Some see the move as progress in a state that has yet to ratify the constitutional amendment ending Prohibition. Others think the changes would enrage the town's famous former resident.
Ann Bell, who's on the board of directors of the museum, said Nation is likely turning over in her grave.
Sunday sales are likely to start Dec. 11.
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Big mistake...Nothing good ever came from alcohol consumption. You have the freedom to choose, but don't forget how adversely it will affect the people around you.
Good for them. Now their will be new revanew in the form of DWI's. and deaths. Now how about doing away with the prohibition of weed. Some thing that dont kill. Just saying
I don't necessarily agree with it impacting others (excluding alcoholism and anyone that gets violent) when a little common sense goes a long way. I drink occasionally, but I am generally laid back. I never, ever drive if I have had more than one beer or glass of wine, even when I am a bar less than a mile from my house. I rarely get drunk, and if I do it is always at home.
I have been around alcoholics, mostly family members (and I know it is a disease), and for years I was very cautious in case it really was hereditary. Now I can pretty much take it or leave it. I have an occasional glass of wine, but if someone told me I could never have a drink for the rest of my life it would not bother me.
I really think my mother's attitude about drinking when I was underage actually contributed to how I am. I know a lot of alcoholics start drinking in their teen years, and most of them did it because they were not supposed to. A lot of people thought my mom was terrible; she told me if I wanted to drink then do it at home. Everyone else was drinking b/c the whole rule-breaking thing was fun; it wasn't like that for me. I didn't even actually get drunk until I was 18, and at the time the law was 18 to drink, 21 to buy.
Uncle Ben, if you read the whole article, the new law only dealt with the sale of alcohol on Sunday. It was already legal the rest of the week.
Sunday bans have more to do with the christian sabbath than any thing else. But saturday is the sabbath for 7th. day adventists, and jews. Every day is a sabbath for buddists, muslims, and hindus.
Soooo, do we need to ban sales for those days to be politically correct?
In a democracy, the majority is supposed to rule. Here, the minority of eligable people vote, and the 1% rule.
No democracy can survive as a form of government. As soon as the voters realize they can vote themselves perks from the public treasury, they will then vote for the candidate who promises the most perks. That government will collapse due to poor fiscal management, and is always followed by a dictatorship.
Some say the same thing about religion
Drink Baby Drink, i think i will open a hooters in that town
Is pole dancing is illegal there too??
@UncleBen
Grow a pair
@iServeUSAR
It takes a much bigger pair for an alcoholic to not drink. It is a daily struggle, and it takes a very strong person to stick to sobriety. It is much easier to give in to your weakness than to fight it.
@UncleBen
I apologize if I misinterpreted your comment and offended you; I gathered you are a recovered alcoholic.
@iServUSAR, I'm ex-USMC, VietNam Vet, scout sniper. I tended bar for 9 years, I drank for 45 years. I've seen many lives ruined because of alcohol. The only ones that weren't ruined are the bar owners that profited from the drunks and alcoholics. I got a pair, bought and paid for.
Nobody forces you to drink alcohol, over drinking is a weakness, not a disease. Over drinking is just another form of gluttony. We can thank Carry Nation for the development of organized crime, which was an unintended consequence of prohibition. I neither drink or smoke by choice, I used to drink and smoke be choice as well. But all I had to do was ask myself what this was accomplishing me, and found I could just stop such a foolish lifestyle. It is simple to just say NO.
Obviously, in this town they did NOT historically have the right to choose. Now they do, and the people have spoken. There are many things in this world that are not good for us, but who is to say which side is right or wrong. Is an issue of choice, something a good portion of those Americans that want to push their agenda down the collective throats of the residents here seem to forget....we the people have a right to choose. I have the right to the 4 or 5 times a year that I want to go out and have a drink of my choice, wherever that may be. Yea, alcohol ruins lives, but so does divorce and a myriad of other vices.
This is a sign of progress, of change. Now at least the residents of this town can get together at the local watering hole, and sit down to a tall cool one on NFL Sunday. The whole gist of this seems to be the concern that if it is available , it will be abused (like they could not just drive to the next county). What about the people who enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer with their fish and chips. For as many lives as alcohol 'ruins', there are 10 times more that imbibe responsibly.
The stupidity of the "FOOLS" that actually enact our laws is mind boggling. These people don't think that a person who's going to drink any how won't buy enough on saturday to last till monday???? God bless our legal system.
But if he buys enough to last till Monday, it may not last until Monday. He will drink extra (too much) on Saturday.
I wish the whole country would go back to Prohibition, all the time. Alcohol creates so many problems, but solves none. Just think how much more advanced our society would be if nobody ever started drinking alcohol.
Straight Edge 4 Life!
You are obviously perfect.
NOT!
I do not drink, but to tell others that they should not have the freedom to do what they want sounds like some taliban sh*#t to me.
Or didn't pour all that money into Churches, Mosques and Cathedrals all around the globe. How much more advanced would we be if we didn't have to deal with all those sins.
Just like a straight edger, making decisions for other people. Get over yourself. Make your own decisions about your life and let everyone else do the same.
Now it's time to take our country back and end the other prohibition.
Legalize marijuana.
Typical junkie mindset.
Guy above has it right, Taliban.
Legalize marijuana ! What are you suggesting? We can't possibly put that many Mexicans out of a job. The border economy would suffer, we would then have to Tax it! Totally unjust to the lower income folks who would spend a much higher persentage of their income on that tax than the rich. What would our political butt-heads waste that huge ammount of tax money on? No, we can't afford that idea. It makes so much more sense to spend millions trying to prevent US citizens from doing what they intend to do anyway.
Prohibition has worked so well in the past, Al Capone and the other organized crime folks absolutely loved it. Yes, they would have found something else to peddle and did when it ended but telling people that they cannot have something is a great way to increase demand. As to the human cost of alcohol, how about smoking, over eating, driving an auto (20000 - 40000 deaths a year) and any number of other things, do we forbid them to? If we do, what do we do to the offenders, throw them in jail?
Prohibition does not work, it never has and given human nature never will, better to educate folks about the drawbacks and accept the fact that some will abuse the substance. Life is not nor will it ever be perfect.
Prohibition in any form is used by authoritarians to extract fines from people, or by the Church to exercise mental control over how people can think or do under penalty of sin. Many prohibitive laws are religion induced. No matter what endeavor man partakes in, there will be some who abuse that act. Look at any field, you will find a charlatan who abuses his field of endeavor.
Too each their own, myself?? if I take a drink I wake up a year later and a hundred pounds overwieght and hung over... i dont touch the stuff no more!
This reminds me of the prohibition battle going on in Utah. Mormons are always anxious to violate the First Amendment and have Utah's government rubber stamp their religious views. Constitutional separation of church and state has been repeatedly violated, and Utah's restrictive alcohol laws are part of that. Already their is a lawsuit to overturn Utah's Mormon alcohol laws, and more will come if this one is not successful. The Mormon church is Utah's Fascist Taliban. The U.S. should declare war against them.
Cocaine only became illegal after the turn of the last century, and principally because the government couldn't figure out how to tax it, Prostitution is legal in a lot of European Countries, they've figured out how to tax it, indirectly. They make the ladies take VD tests every eleven days at a fee, failure to take the tests results in a heavy fine. Before Cocaine became illegal the US had maybe a thousand users. Its illegality has resulted in millions being addicted to it and hundreds of thousands being incarcerated. Illegality runs the price of anything up, acts an inducement to try it, and creates a criminal element who will try and sell it.
Some have said they should bring back Prohibition. There were very good reasons for it when it was passed, but then the country found out that having it in force created worse problems than banning alcohol was meant to prevent.
We are now finding the same problem with other drugs. (And don't kid yourself. Alcohol IS a DRUG!) The murders and other problems would not be there if prohibition were not in place for cocaine, cannabis, etc. If they were legal substances to be sold and used, those we consider criminals now would not need to be committing other crimes to get their fix.
Article writer too stupid to spell "Carrie" correctly even with the sign and her picture right there for reference.