Dothan voters speak volumes

The results of Tuesday’s municipal election suggest that the voters of Dothan are weary of histrionics and are ready for the city’s leadership to settle into a well-conceived strategy to get our house in order.

Almost lost in the fray was a referendum that speaks volumes in its own right.

On every ballot, beneath the races for mayor, city commission and school board, voters were asked to state their opinion on allowing local restaurants to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays.
It’s the sort of question one would expect would generate controversy in these parts. But the alcohol referendum would not expand the sale or consumption of alcohol on Sunday; it simply corrected a quirk in licensing that should have been straightened out a long time ago.

Voters approved the change this week, bringing an end to the era of “club licenses” for restaurants that have been allowed to sell liquor on Sundays to patrons who join the establishment’s “club.”

It’s an Alabama tradition to call one thing by another name and pretend it’s something else. So restaurants have masqueraded as “clubs” on Sundays to mollify the state so they could sell alcohol on the seventh day, just as electronic slot-type gambling machines are now considered “bingo” if they feature the bingo theme.

Local voters have straightened out the club license subterfuge. Perhaps the same will be done in the gambling arena. Call it what it is, then authorize it, regulate it and tax it, or prohibit it outright.

Just call a duck a duck.