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Excessive Laws Against Liquor and Cigarettes Hurt Both Utah Mormons and Non-Mormons


February 7th, 2009
How Senator Waddoups' actions to assume the roll of 'big brother' to all non-Mormons deepens the religious divide.

Alcohol can be abused and certainly ruin lives. But attempts to legislate limits on consumption often backfire because too many people don't understand "don't do it" until they try it for themselves. Laws can't limit human curiosity. Alcohol isn't inherently evil, alcohol has defined culture for 6000 years. For people with a melancholic nature, alcohol is the oldest anti-depressant -- A good glass of wine at the end of a tough day calms the nerves. I feel somewhat sorry for my LDS relatives who don't know this, but they know how to calm the nerves with anti-depressants like Paxil. (Utah has more prescriptions for anti-depressants than any other state)

bootlegger
photo of Edward Balmes family
My Grandpa was a booglegger too.(image from)

My Mormon great-grandfather on my mother's side was a specialist from Utah State University College of Agriculture. He had three sons and two daughters. They were all raised Mormon and went to church every Sunday. My Grandpa's older brother Bill was a man who everyone gravitated towards. Naturally gregarious -- and curious -- Bill started drinking alcohol as a teenager. When he was forced by his church to never drink in a public setting he believed he was afflicted with a dreadful sinful disease. He became the family alcoholic and black sheep, and although Bill was an excellent real estate salesman and investor, he had a dirty-little-secret that made him an outcast. Bill died young--at 48--from liver problems and a broken heart.

My Orthodox Christian great-grandfather Nishan Markosian was a boot-legger during prohibition. He helped his brother Sam run a small cafe. Together they sold sandwitches and Armenian moon-shine to anyone who could keep it on the down-low. My Grandpa once told us about how as a young boy he would serve drinks to men who would come by the cafe to get a taste of the special Armenian blend. Nishan and his brother Sam were poor Armenian immigrants. Nishan never learned to speak English well, but he still provided and worked hard for his large family of seven children -- all grew up successful. Today I'm somewhat of an outcast to the Mormon side of my family, but I don't have to live in secrecy.

I've always associated smoking with cool: Movies like "Die Hard" created a mystique for relief in times of anguish by taking a deep drag from a Marlboro cigarette. But I don't blame Bruce Willis or the Marlboro man for my occasional habit. I'm not so fond of most liquor, but I like to drink occasionally: especially a good refreshing beer like Squatter's Saint Provo Girl. But I don't blame Squatters for making me a sinner. The legislature wants to place more accountability on bars and tobacco companies and less on consumers. They already penalize any bar for over-serving customers alcohol. Bar owners like Joe -- from Cheers to You -- have been slapped with hefty penalties for the actions of their patrons. Regardless if they were drinking all night before even entering their bar. Waddoups and the State Legislature want even greater penalties and stricter laws against bar owners.

It seems that the State Legislature doesn't believe in individual freedom or personal accountiblity when it comes to alcohol and tobacco. Waddoups wants to be my "big brother": track my drinking and keep tabs on my consumption. Waddoups wants to be the good saint protecting innocent Mormons who have gone astray and might end up in a bar under the influence of an evil bartender who is pushing his satan juice on all his patrons. (Word to Michael Waddoups: this actually doesn't happen in bars, visit one an you will see.)

Would have Waddoups' actions helped my Mormon Uncle Stan? No. More laws would have just made him more of an outcast -- more of a segregated "apostate Mormon" from his family who he loved. Laws legislating morality only divides people from their families.

For millennium humans have consumed alcohol and smoked tobacco in social settings. Now the state legislature wants to futher segregate me from my Mormon family. So not only will my occasional drinking and smoking be considered immoral, but necessary to track in a database like the offenses of any criminal act. These actions by representative Waddoups and his cohorts send the message that they would prefer all non-Mormons make a mass exodus out of the state of Utah. The irony of Waddoups' desires are incredible considering what many of the ancestors of LDS members had to endure to live and practice what they believe.

My Mormon Pioneer ancestors fled New York to Illinois because of persecution over their beliefs. They fled from Illinois to Ohio to practice what they believe. Then they had to flee from Ohio to Utah to finally have the opportunity to live in peace to practice their beliefs. If anyone should understand the value of allowing people the freedom to live and let live, it should be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Reader Comments

B Lund

Wow, it's amazing how a life principle can be so twisted to make a bad thing sound good or a good thing sound bad.

OK author, let's say that half of the people in a country think it's bad to kill people, and that it IS inherently evil. Next, you have the other half that thinks it is just fine, and if you want to kill, it's your right; nobody can tell you what you should and shouldn't do, right?

Well, what if there were no laws that said killing was prohibited? Do you pretend to ignore that drinking and smoking DO affect the lives around drinkers and smokers?

Sure, not all drinkers will kill someone in a car or abuse their spouse/children. It's even possible that someone could go their whole life smoking without others breathing in its poison...but just think about it. Can you even imagine how much more wholesome and safe our society would be without either...let alone the chances of actual physical harm to its participants and bystanders?

Anyway, laws ARE based on morals no matter what ANYone says, and they should be too. The sooner we learn that, the better.

GHM

How can you equate drinking and killing?

There are already laws against drunk driving and domestic abuse. What the article is saying is not to drink or smoke in excess, but that government should not control every action of a citizen. Did you read 1984 written by George Orwell? If you didn't, maybe it is time to finally read it. Also, one more comment on killing: you can not kill in small, responsible amounts but drinking a glass of wine is actually beneficial to your health (anti-aging effects, improved lung function, reducing risk of coronary heart disease, decreased risk of ovarian cancer, lowering risk of stroke, etc).

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