To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing my recent letter, responding to Shelem Flemons' comments about the evils of alcohol and that, in his opinion, Catholics were the force behind the repeal of Prohibition (Catholics in 1933-34 would have had to control the "yes" vote in the legislatures in 36 of the 48 states to ratify the amendment to repeal. Hardly plausible! Catholics now at their peak density comprise only about 25 percent of the total U.S. population. Protestants count about 55 percent!)

The anti-Catholic sentiment expressed in Mr. Flemons' article is an example of the underlying cause of such conflicts as we now so vividly see. We have the murderous Middle East, the recent attempts at "ethnic" (religious) cleansing in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the 500year-old conflict between the Northern and Southern Irish, just to name a token few. The mind-set that "My religion/ideology is better than yours," seems to always evolve into, "If you don't accept my philosophies, you don't deserve life!" And we see those who are willing to kill themselves just to kill those they hate. This is bigotry at its finest and bigotry of any nature is not acceptable in a peaceful, civilized world.

Alcohol abuse is without doubt rampant in the United States, as well as the rest of the world. Such tainted my childhood, and I grew up in a totally Protestant home. College offered more disgusting examples of alcohol abuse. My working career was no better. It seemed the higher the educational level of my colleagues; the more they drank (to my utter amazement, they could perform well in their jobs). Virtually none of my college and professional associates professed the Catholic faith.

Incidentally, my childhood home and my college town were both in dry counties, one in Arkansas the other in Louisiana. In both cases, and as in Union County, it was a short trip to a wet county where drycounty residents got all the alcohol they cared to purchase. The wet county got all the State alcohol taxes and the dry county still had all the problems associated with alcohol abuse plus they had the associated crime, i.e. the bootleggers.

So, I offer this response to Mr. Flemons' recent question asking why our recent vote to allow or forbid alcohol sales in Union County was so close. I believe it was because most of the "Yes" voters accept the fact that the repeal of prohibition is here to stay. They recognize even though Union County is dry, this condition does little to nothing to reduce our problems related to alcohol abuse, while our neighboring counties collect the tax dollars that our county residents spend on booze. Given the weekly Union County arrest report, the spent alcoholic beverage paraphernalia that litters Union County roadsides and the ever-increasing number of roadside crosses from alcohol related auto accidents; I would say those "Yes" voters have a strong case.

Richard Y. Fiser