‘Lift the Glass’

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Congratulations on your excellent editorial commemorating the end of alcohol prohibition [Oped, “Lift the Glass,” June 25, 2008]. As you said, we now have a much healthier relationship with alcohol. Perfect, no, but certainly healthier. This is a lesson Americans seem to have forgotten.

The fact that New Yorkers paid little attention to the Eighteenth Amendment was a benefit to the city.

There were more speakeasies in the city during prohibition than licensed saloons before it.

Ask your friends what cities come to mind when they think of the illegal alcohol-related crime of the prohibition era? Chicago? Detroit? Kansas City? Rarely will anyone say New York.

Prohibition fuels crime. If New Yorkers are as smart as we say we are we would institute a similar policy toward illegal drugs in the city today as we had toward alcohol back then.

Back then New Yorkers didn’t tolerate the NYPD spending millions of taxpayer dollars arresting people with a hip flask or a beer in their coat pocket. Why is it okay now to do this to, say, marijuana users? What a waste and how it raises our crime rates and makes our streets less safe.

NICOLAS EYLE

Executive Director

RECONSIDER.org

Syracuse, N.Y.

‘Kennedy v. Louisiana’

In your editorial deploring the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, you profess to take comfort from the fact that both presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, have expressed opposition to the ruling [Editorial, “Kennedy v. Louisiana,” June 26, 2008].

You are mistaken to do so. Based on its “independent” assessment of “evolving standards of decency,” a 5-4 majority of the Court held that imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child violated the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

In so holding, the Court disregarded the views of the people of Louisiana, as expressed by their elected representatives, because they did not comport with the “independent” values of the majority.

Senator Obama clearly has endorsed such judicial usurpation. In discussing the criteria he will use in selecting judges, he has said that he will look for “somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom … poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.” When judges decide cases based on “empathy,” rather than a dispassionate effort to determine what the law requires, decisions like this one are inevitable.

But voters who believe that issues of public policy should be decided by elections, except where the Constitution clearly says otherwise, should support Senator McCain. Mr. McCain has said that adherence to the above principle will be his criterion in the selection of judges.

HOWARD JAECKEL

New York, N.Y.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use