182. Election Day

Much of the country, and perhaps the world, will be commemorating the events of September 11, 2001 today, a day which, like December 7, 1941, will be remembered by any American who was living at the time. I did not then and do not now wish to dwell on the losses our country received on that day. I have never handled it well, and this year, the sixth anniversary, will be no different. Needless to say, prayers and condolences are still offered for those who lost their lives and their families left behind to carry on. It goes without saying that I join those who mourn the losses from that day.

Since that time, Americans have often been reminded that the war we are currently fighting, the worldwide one against Terrorism as opposed to the President's War in Iraq, is being fought to preserve a way of life unique to America. I hope and pray that that is indeed the case. That way of life worth preserving includes the idea and promulgation of self-government. Americans have the opportunity on a pretty regular basis to elect folks to represent them in the various government entities of which they are a part. These include the obvious offices at the federal level of members of the United States Congress, the United States Senate, and a convoluted system of electing a President and Vice President, which usually works, but now and then doesn't exactly work. At the state level, we elect our General Assembly as well as a host of statewide officials. It also includes local legislators such as (here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepoint 606) members of the Metro Council; the Jefferson County School Board; and, in the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County - that is to say the area outside of the old City of Louisville, the only government which was done away with in the Merger vote of 2000 - elections for Fire District Boards and neighborhood councils, as well as the smaller city governments' governors. (I'll throw in here that those of us who live in the former City of Louisville are now a part of the Louisville Urban Services District, and by design, we have no such election power to the committee which governs the Louisville Urban Services District).

While some states allow the placement of referenda on ballots, ours does so only sparingly, almost always either to change the Constitution of the Commonwealth (which for me are usually cast as NO votes), or the opportunity to establish taxing districts, something we haven't undertaken for some time, but will have the opportunity to do soon for the Louisville Free Public Library. The last taxing district I recall passing county-wide was that for the TARC system, Louisville's public transit operation taken back in 1972. But there remains the "Local Option" election, provided for under Chapter 242 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes.

Local Option elections are held at the bottom level of a political (little P) structure, the lowly precinct. In every state across the nation, cities, towns, and counties (or parishes) are divvied up into a unit of manageable organization for the purposes of conducting elections called precincts. Kentucky law allows people in a given precinct to decide very few things specific to that precinct. One of those very few things is the ability to control the sale of alcohol within the boundaries of a precinct. Precincts which allow the sale of alcohol are known as "wet" precincts while those which do not allow it are known as "dry" precincts. There are a number (I do not know how many) of dry precincts throughout Jefferson County. Kentucky law also allows entire cities and/or counties to vote themselves wet or dry. Of Kentucky's 120 counties, 54 are completely dry, including a few where spirits are made.

Which brings us to today's topic. In the northwestern corner of the county, in the old City of Louisville, in the area generally known as the Shawnee area, a largely Black-populated area named for the neighborhood Olmsted designed park created in the early 1900s, four precincts are today exercising one of those ways of life for which we are fighting the War against Terrorism. They are conducting a Local Option election, which will determine whether or not liquor of any sort can be sold within their boundaries. It is an exercise in self-government, an exercise at the very basic level of government, and one in which the majority prevails, without much concern about how much money was spent, who gave the limit, what outside agencies ran commercials, or worries about uncounted ballots or hanging chads (whatever that meant).

This entry is not an endorsement for or against the sale of alcohol, but rather is a reminder that local government, self-government, and participation in government is why we remember those who died in the events of September 11, 2001.