I would like to know why your glasses/posters were not made available for sale online? If nothing else, this would have generated more money that could be put to good use by you in creating public awareness.
Politics is money, and money == votes.
Lots of people have asked that, nobody has volunteered to step up, set up the required 501(c)(3), handle the accounting, tax reporting, legal requirements, orders, shipping, cashing of checks, customer complaints, refunds for broken glasses, registration as a lobbyist, audits from the ethics committee, group charter documents, member disputes, leader elections, etc etc etc.
Instead, one dude said "Here's a glass design. I'll get them printed and handle getting them to bars."
True, he collected some money to offset his costs, but that money was not sent to any "Right to Brew" organization. It was collected among friends and friends of friends in a group buy of a pallet of glasses. No sales, no profits.
Many folks chipped in on moving the glasses around the state. I hauled lots of cases from N. Alabama to Montgomery and Auburn and even distributed many of the glasses you will find in the south part of Montgomery. Others hauled them other places. It was organized chaos.
The poster was the same way. Another dude said "Hey, here's a poster, I'm going to take this and run with it." And in a matter of a few days there were posters being printed. Someone else stepped up and took on the shipping of the posters to each 'region' where someone was willing to hand them out.
Involving money in politics makes you a lobbyist. There are a lot of rules that go along with that. "Right to Brew" is not a lobbyist group. It is simply a collective of like minded voters doing what any other person in the State could do. There are no badges at the State House or anything like that. Well, I take that back. We were all wearing a stick on VISITOR label yesterday! You could have walked in and gotten one just like it, and had just as much access as anyone else did.
And whatever happened to the separation of church and state? lol Using religion in a public rights/political argument is like using curse words to insult someone. You're just to ignorant to use logic and reasoned thinking.
There are many different ways to argue the detriments of alcohol abuse and the benefits of the brewing hobby. Religion should not be one of them.
Let me preface this with: I'm not a religious person.
That is an often misunderstood thing. It doesn't mean that you can't use religion in government. It simply means that they should not be one and the same. I've got no problem with the Committee and the Legislative Chambers opening each session with a prayer. If they force me, under the power of law, to participate in that prayer, or tell me I can't pray, go to this church, or they throw me in jail for going to the other church, that's where the separation thing should come in to play. Like so many other basic principles of our Constitution, that too has been bastardized into something that has nowhere near the original meaning.
ALCAP is a lobbyist organization. It is their right to lobby the Legislators using any tactics they choose. Dr. Ireland and Dr. Godfrey (who attended the House hearing yesterday) are both nice fellows. They are always pleasant to us and we are the same to them. We all had a fairly lengthy conversation yesterday prior to the public hearing convening. Their views, and the views of those who support them, differ from ours, that's all there is to it.
Neither side is "Bad people" as is the usual case with this kind of stuff.