I'm speaking against banning alcohol on Sail Bay beach on the July 4th holiday. I think it is wrong for wealthy plutocratic complainers to sip martinis from the balconies of their million-dollar condos while looking down at beer drinkers on the beach below having dictated that they cannot enjoy their holiday.

The beaches of California are held in trust by the state for all its citizens, not jut the privileged few lucky enough to live there. Why should we deny the enjoyment of this holiday to those who toil in hot, dusty places such as El Cajon and Lakeside and wish a break from their labors this one day.

It is not so long ago that oppressors were put to the guillotine in the French Revolution of 1789. While measures that extreme are not called for perhaps we should allow the masses some slack and allow them their day.

If we can spend as a city, approximately a million dollars a year, in police services controlling crowds and traffic around Petco Park on game days, could we not call on a few more police on this one day a year? Could not a few dollars be found to rent more porto-poties? And if transients could be hired to push trash cans in the Holiday Bowl parade could not they be hired to pick up litter and beer cans?

Please let's show some tolerance for our fellow citizens and allow them to enjoy this one day. It is their beach too and their country.

Wes Willoughby 2/28/04
SPEECH GIVEN BEFORE THE PACIFIC BEACH TOWN COUNCIL