AMEN!

Sunday: the day of rest; a day (if I had my druthers) I would use in the pursuit of catching up on reading, grocery shopping, and trying out a new recipe for a leisurely Sunday dinner. Sunday is a day of rest in that it provides for many a respite from the helter-skelter of the weekday and from the celebratory Saturday.

Just now I've returned from the grocery store, laden with necessities and tasty treats, yet I am one parcel lacking. I am rendered incapacitated, unable to make a nice supper because I do not have Chardonnay to complete my recipe. While it may seem trivial, I am wholly frustrated. It is utterly ridiculous that I cannot buy alcohol on Sunday. It is arbitrary, insidious and I dare say oppressive.

How can it be in our supposed free society that one religious group has such power to enforce its own standard of morality? Why has this continued? Is it because it is a frivolous luxury that politicians can afford to use because of a Christian coalition? These are not rhetorical questions; I would truly like to know (and how to protest and change) this law.

I could understand Chick-fil-A not wanting to open on Sunday; I sympathize with a restaurant that might choose not to serve alcohol on a Sunday or even a chain grocery store that forbids it. But how the systemic sale of one product be dictated by one group? The cashier at the supermarket said, "That's what you get for living in Georgia." My housemate said, "Well, it's only one day a week, plan ahead." I say, "NO!" In fact, I'm not sure I've ever been so spurred to rhetorical action as I am right now. This isn't a gray area; this isn't hazy. There is nothing evil about alcohol. I like beer, wine, spirits and liqueurs, and even if I did want to go home and get soppy drunk, that's my prerogative.

Not only can I not buy any form of alcohol on Sunday, I cannot buy a six pack of beer at any of the gas stations in my vicinity. Why? Because there just so happen to be churches on Prince Avenue. Why are the ostensible faithful so threatened by other people's choices? Why do they care?

This is a backwards law and an infringement of my rights; the moralistic codes that surround the consumption of alcohol propagate the abuse of alcohol. The fear and guilt of alcohol reside in the hearts of its opponents not in the substance itself. Take your guilt-ridden, hypocritical mores off of me! On Sundays you can close your church doors, keeping your righteous hymns inside, and I can uncork my Pinot Grigio in the sanctity of my own home. We need not be at odds with one another.

Erin A. Butler
Athens

TRUTH ABOUT JFK

For the last few weeks, we as a nation have once again rehashed the entire sequence of events of November 22, 1963. After watching all of the documentaries and listening to the discussions, it remains obvious that the public of the United States does not know what happened on that day. As recently as 2001, a Gallup poll showed that eight in 10 Americans do not believe the conclusion of the Warren Commission that Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. On the 40th anniversary of this tragic day, the time has come for us to demand the truth from the government. There needs to be a national referendum asking for the truth. Only when we know what really happened on November 22, will we be able to end the controversy and distrust of the government.

William Dix
Athens

NO!

NO! NO, NO and NO!!! Paint City Hall pink! Hack down The Arch! Subtract a Point from Five! Change Bulldogs into Poodles! But don't, don't, don't let Allen's close! Flagpole, you've got to do something: swing into some kind of action!

Andrew Davidson
Paris