Bullies force halt to vote on allowing alcohol sales in Pine Ridge

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/vote-to-legalize-alcohol-sales-on-pine-ridge-reservation-called/article_3338619c-1ba2-11e6-b0c0-d79d314c52dd.html

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Pathetic.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Dry counties don't work. We tried it nationwide and it was a huge epic fail. It lasted about six months on a Reservation I lived on and was also abandoned for being an epic fail. It works even less than marijuana prohibition.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Uh it was tried nationwide and didn't work.

Alcohol is not terrible, it's so moral even my church serves it at some events. (And no I'm not talking about communion, I'm talking about holding events in actual bars)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Alcohol is horrible, so good decision.

When I get off work I'm going to have a drink in protest of this empty quote pyramid.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I might be the only one here who's actually lived on a Reservation*. It went dry for about six months. Not long. Why? Because it didn't do crap. There was just as much drunkeness and no tax dollars and it was fueling organized crime. Rez gangs would send people up to Bismarck, stock up and liquor, and then come down and bootleg it like it was the 1920s again. My parents admitted to actually buying "imported" beer a few times, though they mostly would just stock up while visiting Bismarck.

Whiteclay, while rather shady, still at least prevents this from occurring. If it didn't exist people would just stock up in Rapid City and bootleg stuff in from there. So why not just allow it on the Rez itself, have the industry a bit more under control and keep the tax dollars?

Above all that though, I don't want to be a hypocrite. I drink alcohol. I shop at liquor stores. South Minneapolis has liquor stores galore and I don't have a problem with them. So wouldn't it be hypocritical for me to say that somewhere else shouldn't have them?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also if alcohol sales were legal on Pine Ridge they could be regulated unlike in Whiteclay. For example they could have it be municipal owned only stores (currently the case in Standing Rock by the way) with a tracking system to limit sales per week per person. Similar to some states with products that include Meth ingredients. Obviously not fool proof 100% but far more successful than just letting unlimited amounts come in from Whiteclay and Rapid City.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

My hometown, which has many liquor stores and was the main supplier to Standing Rock, is very far from liberal. Romney got over 60% there.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If Rez life sucks so hard, why do they stay?

Because they don't have a choice. Poors don't have quite as much mobility to just move somewhere else.

People also often don't understand just how cheap some rezes can be, my parents paid about $400/month in today's dollars for a four bedroom house while living there, thanks mostly to crazy federal subsidies. But it's clear case of you get what you pay for. But if you can't afford anywhere else...