DEAR GOD, PLEASE SAVE ME FROM YOUR PEOPLE 

Hey, what about me???

The Pulitzer committee is abuzz over my column in Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. You can see why by clicking here and reading it. The topic was the proposal to allow retail outlets sell beer and wine on Sundays - pending local voter approval. In that column I questioned the assertion by one Jerry Luguire, the president of the Georgia Christian Coalition, that Sunday was the only day of the week that people didn't HAVE to buy alcoholic beverages. Somehow it had slipped my awareness that such a requirement existed on some, or perhaps all of the other days of the week.

There was one thing absolutely certain about that column; a sure bet if there ever was one, and that was that someone out there would accuse me of "Christian bashing" and would assert that I had absolutely no right whatsoever to challenge a good Christian's desires to use the police power of the state to control my personal behavior.

The "someone" I will use to illustrate just how safe a bet that was is a lady from Ackworth, Georgia named Gilda McCarty. Here's here email to me:

So, here we are ... it's only Monday and already you've learned something I'll bet (since I'm in a betting mood today) you didn't know. The 4th Commandment is actually a LAW! And it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist ... whatever you are, and whichever cosmic thunderer you chose to worship ... the 4th Commandment is a law! Oh ... and of course we had the requisite "I'm never going to listen to you again" line ... or a reasonable variance thereof. If every soul who has written to me to tell me that they will never listen to me again had actually stopped listening I wouldn't have one single soul hanging on every word I said. Come on, folks. Surely you can come up with a better threat than this "I'm never going to listen" stuff! Use your imagination! Skywriting would be nice, or maybe put a full-page ad in the newspaper! I have confidence in you! You KNOW you can do it.

Also ... knowing that my Nealz Nuze readers are law-abiding types ... I thought I would give you this reminder today so that you'll have six days to get used to your new Sunday regimen. Hopefully you behaved yesterday.