I hereby declare the battle over privatization of Pennsylvania’s liquor business to be over.
I reached this conclusion in, of all places, Aleco’s, a tucked-way gem of a sandwich shop at the corner of N. 2nd and North streets in Harrisburg that doesn’t even serve alcohol.
No, I didn’t overhear any legislators and lobbyists speaking of a done deal (though I have overheard these Capitol types loudly discussing their business here before and, in fact, Aleco’s used to be a favorite hangout of former city receiver David Unkovic).
I was waiting on the arrival of my Aleco’s salad (a delicious concoction of pasta salad meets garden salad meets chicken salad), when an advertisement came on one of the two TVs hung on the walls. Sponsored by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, the ad showed a sad little girl at the funeral of her father who, we’re told, has just died at the hands of a drunken driver.
The girl recounts all the life events that her dead dad will miss: her high school graduation, her send-off to college, her (where’s the Kleenex?) wedding. It then credits “current laws” and state liquor store employees for Pennsylvania’s allegedly low death rate from drunken driving.
“Tell your state senator to say ‘no’ to liquor privatization,” the commercial concludes. “We don’t want other children to lose their parents.”
The ad never explains exactly how liquor store employees save the lives of the parents of Pennsylvania’s children. We’re just supposed to know that, without these guardians supervising our booze purchases, it would be open season on the open road.
The Senate just narrowly voted a privatization bill out of committee, and a final vote by the full Senate might take place later this week. Pundits expect the vote to be very close. However, when an organization resorts to debased fear tactics, the exploitation of children and the threat of slaughter on the roads in order to save the current system, you can be pretty sure that it’s all over but for the counting.
See the advertisement for yourself here.
