The 18th Amendment

“Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Prov 9-17

A well-dressed man with a cocktail in hand asked me, “How do you represent those people?”  

He was referring to criminal defendants.  I’ve written many times on this question.  Apparently, it still makes me think since I’m still writing about it.

Around New Year’s this year, I noticed a lot of people throwing “Roaring Twenties” parties.  It seems odd to me that the era that is best known for drinking, is the era where it was outlawed.  

In 1919, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”.  This was the start of the Prohibition Era.  This was the start of the twenties.

I am fascinated with this time period sandwiched between World War I and The Great Depression. It was a time where Americans enjoyed a roaring economic boom.  It was in this time where tradition and custom were set aside.  This was the time where women wore short skirts and danced all night to Jazz music and Al Capone was in his heyday.

What I think is most fascinating about this time period, is that it seems like just about everybody was breaking the law.   Booze was outlawed and it seems everybody was boozing.  Scholars often debate whether the government was ineffective in enforcement or was the government ineffective in its policy?  

President Herbert Hoover said prohibition was “a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.”   

The purpose behind prohibition was to solve moral decline and social instability at the beginning of the twentieth century.  This was a simple solution to a complex problem.

And we know what happened…bootleggers, rum runners, and moonshine became common words.  It’s almost hard to imagine the Roaring Twenties without the speak easy.  Organized crime and police corruption became common.   As Churchill said, “When you destroy a free market, you create a black market.”

 Thus, the “great” experiment had unintended results.  It revealed something about the people.  Prohibition showed us what would happen when the law took something most people liked.  Most people didn’t follow the law.  In fact, it was unpopular to follow the law.

Today, we know this and think no ill of that generation.  In fact, we celebrate that generation.  Here in 2020, people across the country toast to that generation as a model for freedom loving people.  We glorify the Prohibition Era as a time this nation was not a nation of laws, but every man did as he pleased. Yet, here and now I stand in front of many who look down their nose at those accused of breaking some subsection of some statute.

So as the well-dressed man stood waiting for me to answer the question, I shrugged my shoulders.  He sipped on his cocktail and I sipped on my soda water.  My answer to him: “We’re all one decision away from being a criminal defendant.” 

**As a side note:  I stopped drinking 4 years ago this month.  I don’t know if I was what clinicians call an alcoholic, but I know this: alcohol was the thing that was going to take me down.  Not that I’m perfect or great or anything special…I can just say this: I’m better now than I was.**