Our view:
It’s not about alcohol; it’s about choice

On April 24, the Boone Town Council will hold a public hearing to find out if allowing the town’s citizen’s to vote the sale of mixed drinks up or down would be a good idea.

Currently, Boone is one of the few North Carolina towns of its size and demographics to prohibit the sale of liquor by the drink at local restaurants and bars. The prohibition has more to do with the decision by officials of the past to impose their personal moral beliefs on the rest of the community than actual rational discourse.

Boone residents who wish to enjoy the freedom of having more beverages choices with a meal can travel to Blowing Rock and fill that town’s coffers with the excess revenue wasting precious fuel and denying Boone much-needed funds.

The idea that this historic anachronism should be fixed is beyond logical argument. One doesn’t have to support the use of alcohol to recognize the lack of reason and restraint of freedom inherent in the current prohibition.

The Downtown Boone Development Association is backing the push to allow mixed drinks and with good reason. No one denies downtown suffers from several problems that could be fixed by added revenue — more and better parking solutions, beautification efforts, the addition of sidewalks to Howard Street. The additional tax revenues from the sale of mixed drinks is estimated to top $238,000 per year, certainly enough to help alleviate the obstacles which hold downtown Boone back from a greater future.

What about safety? Won’t allowing college students the freedom to add mixed drinks to the already heady array of available intoxicants turn Boone into a realm of lawlessness and destruction?

Happily, not so.

Studies show a higher rate of alcohol-related accidents in towns where mixed drinks are prohibited. The peer-reviewed study goes on to state: “Prohibiting alcohol sales may actually reduce public safety. Research has found that dry counties have higher proportions of alcohol-related traffic crashes than do wet counties. A study of Kentucky suggested that residents of dry counties have to drive farther from their homes to consume alcohol, thus increasing impaired driving exposure.”

Even without such sobering studies, common sense and personal experience tell us that towns and counties that allow freedom of beverage choice are not dens of iniquity but are actually places where culture, reason and tranquility usually are the norm rather than the exception.

Does anyone really imagine the citizens of West Jefferson and Blowing Rock are cowering behind their doors, afraid to venture out lest some martini-sodden miscreant assault them? No, freedom generally begets a responsible populace.

It’s truly amazing that we must have this discussion at the dawn of the 21st century. This overbearing burden should have been dealt with years ago.

We hope responsible citizens of Boone will show up at the special public hearing on Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Watauga County administration building and tell the council we don’t need the government to make moral decisions for us.

We deserve the right to decide where and what we will drink or not drink.

Personal morality and responsibility are just that — personal.

— The Watauga Democrat