I’ve been a resident of Moorestown for over 25 years. Raised my family here. I’ve bought alcoholic beverages at numerous retailers located just “one step over the township line” at all four compass points for 25 years. And I’ve been listening to this Township liquor license debate for about 25 years too.
Frankly, I’m fed up with the preposterous pronouncements both sides proffer on this topic. From the reactionary “Don’t change anything ever in our perfect town” to “Passage of liquor licensing will provide revenue and jobs to the Township for decades.”
The issue is simple:
– If allowing liquor licenses at the Moorestown Mall provides more revenue and diminishes immediate Township needs for more taxes during THE MOST difficult economic times we have faced since the Great Depression… VOTE YES!
– If allowing liquor licenses at Moorestown Mall threatens the very character and moral fiber of the Township and its’ apparently easily-lead-astray residents … VOTE NO!
If voters truly believe permitting these licenses assault the family values, lifestyle and integrity of our Town and its residents, then I don’t’ think this should end with a simple NO VOTE on licenses. It’s every right-thinking residents moral responsibility to propose and encourage passage of additional ordinances completely banning the consumption of alcoholic beverages anywhere within our Township’s sacred borders. Then we’ll have accomplished something! Make no mistake. There is precedent for this action. This very same thing was enacted and in place for more than a decade on the national level. It was called the Volstead Act (1919–33) and I think we should revisit its’ premise. I mean, we do have the worst economic times since the Great Depression, right? So let’s apply that era’s same forward-thinking logic and solve this liquor problem once and for all. Or will we? Hmmm….
Gary Kinzel
