Vote Yes on Five

At long last, Question Five offers Massachusetts voters an opportunity to move the state out of the Puritan age. Sadly, the ballot proposal is only an incremental step, not the bold action the Commonwealth needs.

A "yes" vote on Question Five is a vote to allow retail stores to open at any time on Sundays and certain legal holidays--Memorial Day, Labor Day and the Fourth of July. Currently, retail stores in the state remain open before noon on Sundays if granted special exemptions by the local police chief (convenience stores and video rental stores are exempt from the rule).

Few states still have such arcane "blue laws" on the books, and rightly so. Besides being bad for business and a tremendous inconvenience to customers, the laws violate the separation between church and state, by designating Sunday as a "day of rest."

Some small businesses oppose passage of Question Five, and with some justification. The proposal would mandate that Sunday and holiday work be voluntary, and it requires employers to pay employees at one-and-a-half times their regular wage. Ultimately, these particular provisions should be repealed--they go too far.

In other ways, however, Question Five doesn't go far enough. It would not, for example, allow stores to sell alcohol on Sundays. For this right, Massachusetts residents still have to face the considerable inconvenience of driving to Connecticut or New Hampshire. Still, the proposal marks a step in the right direction--a step voters should not hesitate to take.