news
At least in Tupelo. At least lately.
Today is the day no one can buy beer, wine or liquor within the city limits. Today is the day some residents claim they’re saving, and others claim they’re liberating, as everyone braces for a vote to lift the Sunday ban.
The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to allow beer and light wine sales from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday in restaurants and stores. And if early reactions to that upcoming vote are any indication, it’ll be a long and contentious meeting.
“It’s a hot issue,” said Ward 7 Councilman Willie Jennings, who has received more than 70 e-mails and at least half as many phone calls on the subject since it surfaced earlier this month.
“Every one of them so far is against it,” said Jennings, who himself opposes the measure. “I got phone calls from people in Verona and Saltillo and people all around. I’m getting a lot of calls from church pastors – Harrisburg, West Jackson Baptist.”
They’ve also called and written Ward 4 Councilwoman Nettie Davis. Some of them, she said, told her she’ll go to hell if she votes to lift the beer ban. Others questioned her Christianity.
“It’s just a very touchy subject in the Bible Belt, and people have a tendency to criticize you if you support it, accuse you of being alcoholic,” Davis said. “But I think you have that right, and if we want to be a city we have to provide the type of things people want.”
Davis supports lifting the ban and said she believes it will pass this time. The council last considered the issue in 2002 and voted it down.
Tupelo does allow beer sales the other six days of the week, from 7 a.m. until midnight. Liquor also is available six days a week, but Tuesday’s vote will deal only with beer.
Among the vocal opposition this time is the Rev. Forrest Sheffield, senior pastor at Harrisburg Baptist Church, Tupelo’s largest congregation. Sheffield preached against the measure last week and said he’ll preach again this week.
He also posted a message on the church’s Web site urging people to tell the mayor and council members to vote down the measure.
“There will come a time when someone gets hurt from buying beer on Sunday,” said Sheffield, who also disapproves of alcohol Monday through Saturday. “Even if it did bring in some tax dollars, it’s not worth the harm, maiming or life of one person.”
Sheffield said hundreds of community members share his opinion and that they are in the majority.
But hundreds of others support Sunday alcohol sales, albeit in a less vocal way.
As of Saturday night, 495 people had joined the pro-measure online Facebook page “Sunday Beer in Tupelo, MS.” Members include young and old, black and white, Democrats and Republicans, Ole Miss and MSU, and several of whom mention religious affiliation in their profiles.
The original creator of the page initially granted an interview to the Daily Journal speaking in support of Sunday sales. But he later asked not to be quoted for fear of reprisal to his family business.
The page now is sponsored by Main Street Bar and Grill.
Said Council President Fred Pitts, who supports the measure: “You always hear from the ones who are against it, you never hear from the ones who are for it.”
Not all supporters are silent, though. Ward 1 Councilman Markel Whittington said he has heard from dozens of residents who want Sunday beer sales.
Whittington, like Davis, plans to vote yes this week.
“It’s been a lot of people who are against, but it’s been more people who are for it who have contacted me,” Whittington said. “Most of the people who are actually for it are being kind of quiet, though.”
Click here for more information on the City Council meeting and agenda.
This comment really makes you look ignorant...how can you "amen" a supposition made without any proof? Secondly, if that truly IS happening, then it appears to me that these "offenders" are indeed going to their own homes on Sunday, and are apparantly happy with that...To my knowledge, no one is trying to strike up prohibition again--rather just to exclude alchohol for Sunday sales...You comment shows that there is an element of your side of the argument that only want to win the argument--NOT that you really care that much about the argument, but that you just want to 'stick it to those sorry old Christians'...as time goes on, the proponents of Sunday liquor sales get more and more pathetic...I'd nearly bet that of ALL the persons that voted in the DJ poll to pass the Sunday sales vote, less than 10% has actually done anything to advance their view other than run their mouths on a blog...THATS why the Sunday sales WILL NOT pass...
Thank you.
Preach the Word of God, and allow Church members to make up their own minds.
None of us are for excessive drinking and all that can happen when someone over indulges. But as a pastor myself, I support the responsible use of alcohol including beer. There is nothing wrong with it being sold on Sunday just as it is the other six days of the week.
I hope that people will vote for Sunday sales and then act responsibility. That includes reporting people to the proper authorities who do not act responsiblly.
Maybe restaurants can restrict beer drinking to a certain areas - just like smoking and non-smoking areas back in the old days of Tupelo.
I'm a lifelong Mississippian and an NFL fan. Yes, there are people like me in the Tupelo area who don't care about supporting schools who play in the National Corrupt Athletic Association. For once I'd like to go to a bar on Sunday afternoon, drink a beer or two, get something to eat and watch NFL games. I've been to sports bars in larger cities and watched people drink responsibility. Those who didn't were dealth with just like they were any other day - either a cab was called, a friend took them home or the cops took them away.
I think a majority of the people against Sunday beer sales are among those who have a hard time accepting the fact that Tupelo has become a diverse city. Believe it or not, there are residents of Tupelo, Mississippi, who prefer non-traditional church services or even don't attend church at all, who don't send their kids to Tupelo Public Schools, who don't pull for the Rebels, the Bulldogs or the Golden Wave, who don't care for Elvis Presley's music, who want the bars to stay open past midnight, who don't depend on the Daily Journal or WTVA for their news, who want to buy adult maagazines, who want more community and business opportunities for minorities, and so on. I don't think Tupelo is going to hell in a handbasket if the ban on Sunday beer sales is lifted. Lifting the ban is another sign Tupelo is accepting its diversity. Tupelo is not Pleasantville or Mayberry RFD.
how bout them apples?
In the past couple of weeks you have posted attacks on the quality of education in Mississippi, you have attacked Republicans over being against same sex marriage, and now you are pushing for beer sales on Sunday; wouldn't you be better off living somewhere like San Francisco? But I digress. The main point here is that Sunday beer sales have little to offer to anyone not working in law enforcement. And for our law enforcement officers it will make what was once the quietest day of the week into another headache. Like I have told you before, it is better to sit quietly at your keyboard and let us think you are an idiot than to start typing and prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Chick G.