Beer and Wine sales DO NOT MEAN liquor will be sold in Oconee County

Fear mongering is a popular spectator sport in Oconee County. The county government is not going to start forcing people to buy beer at $1.00 a bottle with a plate of chips at various restaurants outside of the municipalities. The misinformation flying around about this argument is amazing as usual, but I must give the various components of the opposition to allowing people to order beer and wine with a meal credit for effective tactics in attempting to delay the inevitable.

I was not living in Oconee County when beer was first made available in convenience stores in the mid 1980s I believe. I did drive out to Oconee County to some solitary cinder block shack somewhere off the old 441 back when I was a degenerate undergraduate earlier than that to buy beer on Sunday for the then outrageous amount of $10.00 for a 12-pack.

People are going to drink no matter what you do. People will tailgate and dine at restaurants in various eating establishments, and if they want a beer or wine with their dining experience, they would keep driving down Highway 316 to find the place for beer and wine to be purchased with their food. Brown bagging is tacky and not something I am proud to do.

I do not hardly drink beer or wine at all whether I am at the Taco Stand or Mirko's Pasta, especially when I have my son with me. What it all boils down to is whether or not you want to expand the economic base of Oconee County. I do not condone drinking to excess ever, nor do I want anyone to drive drunk.

I am thankful for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners finally taking up the vote for allowing beer and wine is restaurants in unincorporated Oconee County. The ratio for food versus beer sales is a red herring. The lines looping outside the restaurants in Watkinsville should be an indicator enough that this will be good for Oconee County. I have heard of no actual governmental movement to have a referendum for alcohol in the primary this summer or the general election this November. I will double check with people who would know about this. I do not think that suddently Oconee County will turn in to Sodom and Gomorrah with the passage of beer and wine sales in restaurants. We have it in convenience stores outside the city limits, we need it our restaurants.

The development bubble has burst. We have had two recent planning commission meetings canceled because of nothing on the agenda to vote on, meaning there are no new buildings being considered or constructed. There are three thousand empty lots in this county. We can continue to let our economy and infrastructure crumble, or take steps to correct and change the direction we have been heading. Until people start running against the entrenched incumbents, we have no real decision or retribution for supposed ills.

What kind of future do you want for Oconee County? A romantic notion of the past has its charm and corrosion as well. You can look at the tragic and touching 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination and the corresponding activities at Moore's Ford Bridge from Walton to Oconee counties as a pretty accurate indicator of those wanting to hang on to the past. I am in no way advocating some sort of grandiose conspiracy theory tying all this together, but it is somewhat of a simplification of those looking toward a better future versus those wanting to hang on to some rose tinted past.

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