The Moment of Truth
Be sure you've seen our News page for the latest. We are on the brink of seeing one of our companion bills clear its house of origin. This Tuesday, HB195 will go before the entire House of Representatives, and barring a giant disaster (Alabama politics offers no guarantees), it will be voted on. Either they will pass it, or they won't. If they pass it, it will then be sent to the Senate to be approved by the same committee that has already approved SB211 (which is identical to HB195), and then it's on to the Senate floor for a vote, which is the final step before it goes to Governor Riley for his signature.
So, success on Tuesday does not guarantee ultimate passage of our bill. It could still get bogged down in the deadlock of Senate polititcs, where hardly anything of substance has been accomplished this year. But failure on Tuesday would bode very, very poorly for our chances this year. SB211 would still be alive and if it were to pass the Senate, it could end up in front of the House for a vote. But since SB211 is identical to HB195, it seems highly improbable they would pass the former after voting No on the latter.
So this is it folks. Failure is not an option. We in FTH--together with our lobbyist--have done a tremendous amount of education among members of the legislature. Hopefully they have all now heard of Free The Hops, and they understand that our purpose is to bring higher quality beer to this state, not destroy AL's youth. But they absolutely must hear from their constituents. No voice speaks louder than one that can help keep them in office... or kick them out.
So as I've already said in the newsletter, make sure you contact your Representative sometime before Tues morning when the session convenes. A phone call is best. If you get voice mail, leave a message. Heap an email in there too if you can. There is an anti-alcohol voice out there that will be talking to the Reps. They will hear accusations that our bill will be detrimental to high school kids. They need to hear more voices speaking the facts, based on the data that proves no link between the availability of higher alcohol beer and underage drinking.
Watch out, House of Representatives.
We Are a Nonprofit Operated by Volunteers
I don't listen to talk radio. I'm a rock and roll kind of guy. Sometimes I listen to 105.5 the Vulcan; often I listen to my iPod. So I did not hear the discussion of our bill that apparently took place Tuesday morning on 101.1 FM. I have, however, heard about it from a couple people who listen to that station.
What I have been told (and please, correct me if I'm wrong) is that the someone on the show was very critical of our bill, not only pulling out the baseless and specious "This will hurt the kids" argument, but also claiming that the only reason Free The Hops is pushing to change this law is that we will profit from it. Again, I'm going on a second-hand report here, but I was told they said we'd actually make money if this bill passes.
Holy cow. It's not exactly surprising, but it is nevertheless amazing to me that anyone would get on a major radio station and speak from such total ignorance about a subject they clearly know nothing about.
Folks, we are a non-profit. We are operated solely by volunteers. We all have day jobs, and none of us work in the beer industry. FTH bank statements are passed around at every meeting; any member is free to see exactly how their membership dues are being spent. And I can tell you now how that money is spent. It goes to operate the organization, and it goes to pay our lobbyist. That's it. Not a single dollar ends up in the pocket of anyone in Free The Hops. It goes to change these stupid laws, and nothing else.
The only thing that will happen after SB211 or HB195 becomes law is that we in FTH will start spending money on beer in Alabama that we currently spend in Georgia. That's it. Not one of us will become a penny richer, and we in fact may end up several pennies poorer.
I understand if you have religious convictions that lead you to personally abstain from alcohol. I don't fault anyone for their personal moral convictions. But don't get on the radio and spout complete falsities because you couldn't bother spending 20 minutes reading through this website, or even better, emailing me directly. Find out the whole story before you open your mouth, please.
A Friendly Blog Round-up
I've been actively searching the internet recently trying to keep track of every mention of FTH and our bills in the media. Positive stories are encouraging, and if anything negative surfaces, I want to address it quickly. You can always click on the "More FTH News" link (on the right, under News & Announcements) from any page on our site to get to our news archive. That has links to every story we know of.
Overall the press has been very positive. It seems like most people understand we are trying to bring about progressive change for Alabama, not get high schoolers drunk and put them on the road.
My news searches led me to discover we have gotten quite a bit of attention from bloggers. Mostly in Alabama of course, but even a few outside the state. Their support is appreciated, and a few have interesting commentary. So I have decided to collect the links and post them to the FTH blog for those of you who may be interested. In a few cases, I will append my own comments to make a point in response to the bloggers.
First up, a DC blog called "To The People":
http://www.tothepeople.com/2007/03/tourism-in-alabama.html
He chuckles at a quote attributed to me in a recent Huntsville Times story. Which opens the door for me to explain an important point. I've learned during the course of the FTH campaign that news articles rarely contain exact quotations of what people in the article said. Rather, what they do is jot down a few notes about the gist of your comments, then make up a couple sentences to summarize and put quotes around it.
FWIW, I did NOT say the state is losing "thousands of dollars" in tax revenue. What I actually said at the public hearing on the House bill is that "thousands of Alabamians" travel to neighboring states to buy these beers, and those sales should be taking place in Alabama. An important distinction, as I have no way of knowing just how much tax money is ending up in neighboring states because of AL's oppressive alcohol laws.
Next up, a long-time supporter of the cause, Dan of "Between the Links":
http://betweenthelinks.com/2007/03/23/my-contraband/
You'll notice he has an entire category on his blog devoted to Free The Hops, and he's been posting about our progress for over a year. There is one thing in particular in the above post I'd like to address. A quote from Dan:
I still have a problem with this bill because it still maintains state-control over the amount of alcohol you can have in a beer. The new standards, if the legislation passes the legislature and is signed by the governor, will allow an ABV of 14.9%... By changing the laws to allow the 14.9%, the state is essentially saying, “We can still tell you what you can and can’t drink."I feel the same way. It makes me angry that we will have any limit at all on beer. After all, the limit our bill seeks to establish doesn't accomplish anything worthwhile. It does literally nothing but exclude a handful of extreme beers from Dogfish Head, Sam Adams, and maybe one or two other experimental beers. All products that are exceptionally expensive (the $100+ price tag on SA Utopias has been widely reported in the national media), and thus should not give the anti-alcohol opposition anything to fear. No high schooler in AL is going to shell out $100 on a 25% ABV beer.
Fortunately, though I may be an arm-chair idealist, when I start working to accomplish a goal I am utterly utilitarian. While the 14.9% limit angers the idealist in me, the utilitarian in me knows it will help get our bill passed, so it's a compromise worth making. Even though you and I know there is nothing to fear from 15% or 16% beer, those are scary numbers for people who know nothing about beer. They're afraid that without a limit Budweiser will come along with a 20% ABV beer that looks and tastes like Bud Light, and at the same price point, so the high schoolers can go out and get rip-roaring drunk on just a couple of beers. Never mind that this has never happened in other states with no limit; fear does a great job of ignoring facts.
So, we put the limit in there, and it will help our bill become law, and it makes me a little angry to have to compromise, but that anger is completely drowned out by the happiness inspired by the thought of being able to buy a case of Bigfoot at Costco next winter.
Next, "A Bama Blog" by Lee P:
http://abamablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/legislature-may-liberalize-law-on.html
Lee also comments on the recent Huntsville Times story, and takes issue with a quote from our Senate sponsor, Parker Griffith. He thinks it's too snooty to describe Huntsville as sophisticated and say the city should have more specialty beer because of the "cosmopolitan" population.
I'm a little wary of beer heading down the path of wine, where some people are afraid to order certain bottles at a restaurant for fear of looking unsophisticated. I hope beer is always friendlier and less snooty than wine. But on the other hand, beer does not get the respect it deserves. There are craft beers just as fine and complex as any wine on earth, yet wine continues to enjoy the rep of being something that "cultured" people drink while beer is still widely viewed as something Bubba uses to get drunk at the ball game. Part of the FTH campaign is elevating the image of beer in Alabama, and I think Senator Griffith's comments were spot on. The beers we're trying to bring to Alabama appeal to intelligent, well-educated people. And understanding that fact encourages legislators to vote for our bill. Which is a good thing.
And finally, a few more honorable mentions:
http://blog.patelive.com/2007/03/22/alabama-beer-fans-rejoice/
http://www.msbrew.com/search/label/Alabama
http://lyke2drink.blogspot.com/2007/03/alabama-south-carolina-and-west.html
Thanks, bloggers. We appreciate all the support. Alabama is going to see better beer on its retailers' shelves this year. posted by Danner at 9:38 PM permanent link 4 comments
A Clarification
This blog was somewhat orphaned after the 2006 Legislative session. There just hasn't been much I've felt inspired to comment on outside the monthly newsletter during the off-season. But now we're back in the thick of it, and I need to clarify a thing or two.
I have seen several different sources--from newspaper articles to blogs to letters to the editor--make some reference to our bill(s) this year addressing the container limit on beer. Sadly, that is not true. Look at the text of the bill folks: HB195. The only changes to the law we are currently proposing are where words to be deleted are crossed out and words to be added are underlined. All we are addressing right now is the ABV limit. I can only guess someone made an assumption about our bills after looking at our website, and then someone else took that assumption as fact.
No, even after one of our bills succeeds this year, the container limit on beer will remain 16 ounces. There are two primary reasons for this, and while I'm sure they were spelled out in a newsletter long ago, it would be helpful to dust them off for this post.
First, getting "pro-alcohol" legislation passed in Alabama is difficult enough when you're only addressing one issue. Trying to educate legislators about the nature of high alcohol beer is hard enough. If we were to include an increase on container size in the same bill, it would just create a bigger, fatter target for the anti-alcohol opposition. Instead of only having to find fault with one issue in a bill, we would be giving potential opponents a choice, a buffet of options to pick from when attacking the bill. Having more than one issue in the bill would make it easier to shoot down.
Second, there are some powerful beer wholesalers in the state who are vehemently opposed to raising the container limit, but they are supportive of the ABV change. Right now, we have their support on our bills. If we were to include a provision to raise the container limit, not only would their support be withdrawn, but they would actively fight against us. And that would make a difficult task nearly impossible.
Currently, our plan is to address the container size at a local level. This would invoke less ire from the beer wholesalers and make our chances for success much greater. We don't yet have a detailed plan on how we'll do that. Just addressing the ABV limit has been enough work for us as volunteers this year. I think we'll soon see success on the ABV issue, at which point we'll turn our attention to the container limit.
Also, everyone please note that SB128 had a typo of some sort and had to be refiled with a new bill number. Our Senate bill is now officially SB211. That doesn't have any effect other than we need to cite the correct bill number in our letters and phone calls to our Senators and Representatives.
Be sure to start dropping by this space once in a while during the session. I intend to pick up the pace here with all that's going on.