Protestantism

» pink101 - Prohibition

In response to Prohibition posted by paper_turtle:
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I read your comment and thought my response to the article added to yours.
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By "it" I meant the entire experience of prohibition from the onset.
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One thing we have to recognize about alcohol addiction is related to the assault it makes on the lower classes among us. Back in the ninteenth century, men worked six plus days a week and ten hours and more a day. When they came home they were dead tired and often treated their families badly. When they were paid they hit the bars and drank a good share of their pay up, brawling and whoring. Finally at home they would take out their frustrations on the wife and children. Check it out, it's in the history books..
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I have a great little book on the history of lumber camps in America during the ninteenth century. Poverty stricken men swarmed into the woods to earn money cutting down forrests. They stayed in the woods away from home and family until the weather was too bad to do any more cutting and clearing. But, the lumber barrons gave them a holiday in mid-summer during the 4th of July. The men were given advances on their earnings before they went into towns like Muskegon, Michigan, that were pretty much owned by the barrons. The towns were lined with bars where they could spend their money and the whores got whatever they had left. Then, back into the woods until the onset of the dead of winter. Work, drink, and whore--little money was left for wife and family. Alcohol was a curse on America. Prohibition helped get things in a better prospective; but, it wasn't enough.
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I attended a AA meeting over the weekend as a guest. Sat in a circle of fifty people from the age of 18 on up to me at 75. I watched and listened as they went through their rituals of the 12 step program. The strength is in their group. They have to stay tuned in to their relationships with each other.
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I'd like to see such a program that is against cigarette smoking which is a far greater curse on the world.
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-- posted by pink101