Many cheerleaders for yes on Question One do not live in Tisbury, including a number of businesspeople.

Many people who own businesses in Tisbury believe that hard liquor in Tisbury will boost their businesses by increasing the town’s “vibrancy.” I am unaware of evidence that alcohol has this “contact high” effect for other businesses.

However, alcohol creep —whereby requests for beer and wine licenses inexorably are followed by demands for hard liquor, then bars, then package stores — is well documented throughout the commonwealth. Promises of alcohol advocates that they will make no further demands for greater and easier access to hard liquor are predictably empty.

It is up to Tisbury voters to decide the character of their town and the type of activities and businesses they want to patronize and encourage in Tisbury — not to have the town’s character defined for them by nonresidents as being dependent on hard liquor sales. In this sense Question One is a home rule issue.

Tisbury voters have a clear choice: A yes vote on Question One is a vote for bars and package stores down the line — very likely a short line. A no vote is a vote to “draw the line at beer and wine” and get off the slippery alcohol slope now.

Katherine Scott
Vineyard Haven