On December 5th, 1933 Utah ratified the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, making the three-quarters majority necessary for adoption. The eighteenth article of amendment, which had prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes" was thereby repealed.

Repeal of Prohibition was part of the Democratic Party Platform in 1932. That year Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in a landslide over Herbert Hoover, winning nearly 60% of the popular vote, carrying 42 states and achieving an Electoral College victory of 472 - 59. Indeed, Hoover's inability to deal with Prohibition has been cited (along with the economic collapse) as a major factor in his waning popularity.

Leaders of the "Temperance Movement" (a misnomer of Orwellian stature) had promised that Prohibition would bring about and end to crime, poverty, mental illness and drunkenness. Needless to say, history proved them quite wrong, and now judges them harshly.

I'll leave it to others to recount the many evils brought on by Prohibition, and perhaps even to extol the virtues of alcohol in celebration of the day. Let me simply state that liberty is a good thing, and that we might do well to remember what inevitably happens when fanatics (particularly religious fanatics) are allowed to legislate on issues of personal conscience and morality. Examples of their poisonous influence on our society today would not be difficult to cite.

This is America, sweet land of liberty. May we always remember that, and whether or not we choose to do so with a drop or two of the stuff, may we celebrate it.

Cheers.