Alcohol Ban on Beach

My life centered around water activities the very minute I became old enough to make my own decisions. From the beginning, beer was an inherent ingredient completely acceptable to my family, peers and the government.

In Indiana through my 30s, in Florida through my 40s and now in Ocean Beach through my 50s, swimming, fishing and boating have been extremely important in making my personal and business determinations.

In fact, I moved here 20 years ago because of the ocean. Many other opportunities went by the wayside, because I wanted the advantage, health and otherwise, of enjoying the seashore. And, as always, I intend to continue enjoying it with a six-pack of beer in the afternoon.

Surely the media and existing government ethics committees recognize that, under the Constitution, the majority cannot dictate how the minority makes its personal choices and exercises its freedoms.

The majority may become a virus, which influences politicians, because the majority represents voters. This virus may influence the press, because they represent the bulk of circulation.

Restrictive movements of this kind are not erasing crime, hate or passion. They are put into motion by ego-involved people who see themselves taking the righteous center stage. For the most part, these are people who do not participate in the events they try to control.

How many respondents in the Park and Recreation Department’s survey inhale quarts of salt water surfing and bodysurfing or tan themselves in a hot June, July and August sun?

We, who live at the beach, are most aware that a cold beer is not only desirable after swimming in the salt water on a hot day, but it is part of a comfortable lifestyle, which we should not have to relinquish.

If there is one place a beer belongs, it is on a beach. In 20 years of bodysurfing at Ocean Beach, I have seen only a handful of alcohol-related problems. Lifeguards easily handled what were really minor disturbances.

Recently, the Ocean Beach Merchants Assn. voted to support an alcohol ban. Well, this issue is important to many of us who live here, and we can and will ban the merchants, if such a move takes place.

We may be in the minority, according to the Park and Recreation Department, but it would seem a beer drinker’s ban on shopping from the sea to Interstate 5 could influence their thinking.

CHARLES F. ROSS, Ocean Beach