I would like to take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the Yes or No to Alcohol vote on Tuesday. Take a look at the dollars that will be boosting our local economy if we mark YES: more money to the school system, better restaurants paying taxes, and the list could go on and on.

I would like to suggest we also legalize prostitution to go along with the legalized alcohol sales. Talk about the tax dollars that would bring in.

Or are you thinking, how crazy! Let’s be realistic, with the sale of the alcohol comes the need to be able to pay for it, and yes, there are and will be fathers and mothers who will prostitute their young children to help support their new addiction to alcohol. With the legalized prostitution, that money can go help meet the educational needs. Sounds like a win-win situation, don’t you think?

Will our town support such stupidity? We will know in a few days.

Now, indulge me as I tell you what it was like when I was grammar school age.  I was a normal student, like the rest of my classmates. I walked the few blocks to school and few blocks home every day with several other students. We would play hopscotch along the way.

Most Saturday mornings were spent watching “Bugs Bunny,” “The Jetsons,” and “The Flintstones.” After doing what chores I had to do, I would head outside to play with my friends. Sounds pretty much like a fun time and it was.

But there were the days that were not fun. One being the time I had to tell my best friend’s parents she couldn’t spend the night with me as planned. The holidays were sometimes unusual. We would get big family gifts like a color television, or a console stereo that we were enjoying so much until it had to go back to the store. Oh yeah, the vivid memory of my daddy telling me monkeys were all in the room we were in.

Talking about being out there, he was.

What about being called an impudent? That was a new word to me and when I looked it up; I wasn’t feeling good about myself. There were the days my daddy was not quite himself. This was hard for me to accept because I was a daddy’s girl. The difference in the fun days and not so fun days was his drinking to excess. Another name would be alcoholic.

Yes, daddy’s girl had to live many days with a drunken father.

To this day I still carry the scars. Sometimes I hurt over their jagged memories and then move on. What does this have to do with the opportunity we have to legalize alcohol sales? That is up to you decide. Many families, children, and home lives will be wrecked due to the availability of booze, if passed.

People, wake-up and realize what could happen to our wonderful community if this is allowed to pass. Are you ready and willing to take a chance for kids like that? I do not want any child to go through what I did.

By the way, my daddy sobered up in his later years, he even asked for forgiveness, which I gave him. The best part of his sober years was he asked Jesus into his heart.

Are you pondering?

Jean Johnson, Russellville