Liberal mobile hospital
Posted on 10/13/2007 4:48:31 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Anybody remember “That’s What I Like about the South”? How about Phil Harris, who had a hit with that ditty in 1947? Let’s not always see the same hands. The point is I like the South. Born and raised here. Have relatives all over. But some folks actually fear the South. That got me thinking.
Last week staffers from the House Homeland Security Committee came to the Bank of America NASCAR race in Concord, North Carolina. It was a fact-finding trip about “public health-preparedness at mass gatherings.” Organizers of the trip advised the staffers to get vaccinated before they went – for hepatitis, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.
The Democratic staffers took the shots. The Republicans didn’t. The local Congressman, Robin Hayes, wrote a blistering letter to the Chairman of the Committee asking “why the heck the committee feels that immunizations are needed to travel to my hometown?”
Whoever made this suggestion fears the South. Did they think we were going to bite the visitors? Force them to drink swamp water, or worse, moonshine? Did they think that Southerners are a lesser breed, like the inhabitants of a third-world country? Dumb as dirt, and contagious with every known disease including housemaid’s knee?
This incredibly stupid approach to the South caused a substantial reaction from members of the Highlands Writers Group at our meeting just after the story broke. Several of our group are doctors. Most are published authors. One with ample credits is a well-established travel writer from New Orleans.
I won’t give her name because she didn’t ask to be dragged into this spat. But she told this story. When she first began as a free-lance travel writer, she would send offers to cover events in her home town, New Orleans, and editors in New York would respond “if they wanted to cover that event, they would send a staff member down.”
Once she broke through and became published, she found that her inquiry letters were being dismissed because her return address was in Mississippi. And “everyone in New York knows that everyone in Mississippi is, at best, a functional illiterate.”
My fiancee had a similar experience when she told her co-workers at the bank in New York where she then worked, that she was leaving to move to North Carolina. “I hope you like NASCAR.” And, “You’ll miss indoor plumbing.” And generally referring to Southern males, including me, as knuckle-dragging uni-brows.
I’ve almost always lived in the South, but have traveled and worked across the country. I’ve never experienced anti-Southern bigotry. On reflection, there are two reasons why not. One is my accent. It’s from Baltimore, Bal-mer as the natives call it. My mother’s family is from Birmingham, Alabama, and have accents you can spread on toast. But my father and all of my classmates spoke Balmerese, so I did, too.
The other reason I didn’t experience anti-Southern bigotry is that most people I’ve worked with over the years either knew me or had direct experience with my work (law and journalism) before we met. Everyone who’s ever experienced bigotry on any basis, knows that personal knowledge is the antidote for bias.
The bottom line is, there’s still a great deal of anti-Southern bias. Southerners are as intelligent, and more sociable, more hospitable, and more dedicated to culture, food and music, than any other population group in the nation. So, what explains the bias?
It may be fear of Southerners as a political group. The national importance of the South as a political block has been growing steadily in recent decades. Census data explain why. The South and the West are roughly tied in top growth rates.
That means more Congressmen for the South, and more Electoral College votes. It means the national press will pay attention to the results in the South Carolina presidential primary, as a barometer of “how the South might go” in the 2008 election. But sadly, many of the press will be like the ignorant advisers who told staffers to get shots before coming to visit my state.
They will assume that we are a pack of Forrest Gumps, stumbling through life with marginal intelligence. Therefore, how we vote in national elections is merely an obstacle to get over or around, rather than in indicator of how pragmatic voters with a good dollop of common sense, figure out the candidates.
So, here’s my offer: I challenge the New York Times to send a reporter chosen at random, to spend a month here on our mountaintop in the Blue Ridge. We will take him/her everywhere we go, to meet everyone we know in this small town. We’ll feed and water that reporter handsomely. Most of all, that reporter will come away with a real knowledge of real people in the South.
It could be an eye-opening experience.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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As a northeasterner, how do you guys feel about Formula 1 and rally racing?
This should help the socialist Democrats in next year’s elections.
Another thought... How many Homeland Security Committee staffers were involved in this trip on tax money? Who paid for their shots??
......Bob
Well, everyone knows the South is just a seething bastion of racism, cars on cinderblocks and beer swilling guys sitting on their front porch wearing wife-beaters./s
This occurrence was no surprise to me at all. I was born in Norfolk, VA, was a military brat and have settled in Massachusetts, but...I hear sentiments like this on occasion, particularly with the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. Most people, contrary to popular opinion ARE normal up here, but there is a rabid liberal constituency that votes reliably, and that is where you will find the body of the iceberg.
Very well put, thanks for posting.
Sir,
I know a lady in upper New York, a law professional, who has told me that firms in New York hate to send young staffers
out to the coast or the south for over a few months, as it ruins them. They lose their fine upper class elitism and actually start to be real people. Of course, this lady is the all time queen of Pampered Princesses....
The difference in the way liberals look at poor rural Southern whites and poor Southern rural Blacks is an example of total yin and yang thinking. It's like poor whites are the "evil twin." The characteristics of the two groups are identical, and liberals of former days dedicated their lives to convincing poor white Southern bigots that their Black counterparts are just like them. Now today's liberals insist that the same thing that makes poor Southern Blacks lovable and admirable make poor Southern whites hateful. You'd think Blacks were a recent immigrant group with strange ways and not a group that has lived here for four hundred solid years.
It all boils down to Hegel. Poor Southern rural whites are the "antithesis" and poor Southern rural Blacks are the "thesis." Everything about the former is bad; everything about the latter is bad. It also reminds me of Calvinism.
“That’s What I Fear About the South”
Northeastern leftist elites should worry more about their health in DC or NYC than in the South. But, then they’re known for their ignorance.
I agree Congressman Billbob, and Love N.C.
Kudos!
Mississippi ping
The comments made by Benny Thompson were blatantly RACIST. If a white Republican had made such comments about staffers regarding a rap concert, or Juneteenth gathering it would be all over the msm and their resignation would be demanded.
A multi million$ track has just been built 10 miles from my home. Check it out:
http://millermotorsportspark.com/3.0/index.php
Financed by Larry Miller, the owner of the Utah Jazz, it is the nations newest track for both motor bikes and sports cars. Super weather has already given us a full schedule and both Forular 1 and NASCAR have looked over the track.
The only problem we have is the infrastructure. We do not have the facilities to give large amounts of people shots.
.....Bob
NASCAR is to Americans that Viagra is to sex.
I think the difference is that we don't think any less of you because you enjoy it, even if it isn't our cup of tea.
It’s not like us in the South have some big affinity to be “watched over” by Liberal New Yorkers, or anything. They should keep in mind; it’s a two-way street.
Liberal mobile hospital
I like rally because it’s offroad racing. Le Mans is alright because it’s nice endurance racing.
“So, here’s my offer: I challenge the New York Times to send a reporter chosen at random, to spend a month here on our mountaintop in the Blue Ridge.”
Just for fun on the reporter’s last day, get a 4x4 and run them up into Little Canada and kick them out of the car.
BTTT! Well said.
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