Beer and Llyr
I find myself still thinking about the possibility of packaged alcohol sales in Lubbock. I have learned that making Lubbock wet MUST require a petition; the City Council cannot put the issue before the voters as they can with a bond package. This is a state law that should be changed, but I don’t believe our state legislature will change it.
Now, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the petition cannot get done unless a paid group comes in and organizes the petition drive. This was successful recently in Fort Worth. Groups like this aren’t cheap, and likely some coalition of big businesses in Lubbock would have to fund such a move.
I still believe that it’s possible to obtain the nearly 20,000 valid signatures necessary to put packaged alcohol sales on the ballot with an all-volunteer effort. The trick will be putting competent organizers in charge of the process and making it a multi-petition process. I believe 2009 is the year to make Lubbock Wet — that’s when all the best organizers in town will be done with the (much more important) campaigns of the 2008 election cycle.
On a totally unrelated note, I’ve been re-reading some books in my spare moments at my month-old (yay!) bookstore, Awesome Books. This week, I’m re-reading the excellent Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. I was struck by a quote from the third book, The Castle of Llyr:
“Whether it be Prince or Pig-Keeper,” said Gwydion, “such is the way of a man. The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.”
The above quote is a nice way to express one of my core beliefs, shared by most of us on the Left: we are in this together. We are individuals, yes, and that’s important. However, there is a greater fabric of society that links us together, and that’s why we have to look out for each other. These days, many on the Right do not look far past the individual, often refusing to look at problems from a systemic perspective. They just don’t get it.
Lloyd Alexander got it, and he gave this insight to millions of children through his wonderful books.
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I’m with you on the possibility of pulling the petition off with volunteers. In fact, I’m not sure it would even be that difficult to get the signatures. One of the advantages of trolling for signatures on an alcohol-selling initiative is that there are a couple of places where huge numbers of beer drinkers congregate. One takes up the entire area between University and Indiana, and 19th and 4th. At any time during business hours you will find literally thousands of alcohol consumers, many of whom are Lubbock county voters and many others of whom would be willing to become Lubbock voters on the basis of this initiative alone, walking around outside the buildings who will react to your petition with ecstatic cries of “awesome, bro!” You could also set up shop in the Depot District on Friday night and across from the Strip.
The other advantage of this petition over other ones is that it has the potential to be something almost no political initiative can be: cool. You might find radio dj’s and local musicians willing to voice their support for the initiative and let their listeners know when/where the petitioners can be found. Frats and sororities may insist that their members sign and do a lot of the work spreading the word for you. Grocery chains and convenience stores may be willing to help out gratis, since it’s very much in their interests that it pass.