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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Why does it remind you of Calvinism? John Calvin was white, and he was not a liberal,or even a socialist. He was what we would call a conservative today. He was a Christian. He believed in a representative form of government, also known as a republic, the system our Founding Fathers set up. He believed in the importance of working, saving, and investing. He believed in what we call capitalism. He believed in the six fundamentals of the Christian faith: the virgin birth, Christ’s blood atonement, the inspiration of the Bible, Christ’s deity, Christ’s bodily resurrection, and a literal Second Coming of Christ. He also believed in the Trinity, the eternal security of the believer (also known as perseverance of the saints, as Calvin’s followers call it, or once-saved-always-saved), creation, the idea that man is basically evil, salvation by grace through faith, holiness (including the Ten Commandments), angels, the resurrection of the dead, the coming judgment, miracles, a global flood, Heaven and Hell, the lake of fire, etc. In other words, he believed everything I believe, except in the areas of predestination, baptism (he believed in infant baptism and sprinkling), limited atonement (he believed that Christ died for just the “elect”), church government, and some aspects of prophecy (such as the identity of the Antichrist, the timing of the Rapture, the meaning of “thousand years” in Revelation, etc.).
Our son went to Deerfield Academy his junior and senior HS years--Deerfield, MA-a super prep school founded by Samuel Adams and extant ever since. They were positively disbelieving when I told some of them that the countryside there is much like our part of NW Alabama except for the white birch-also disdainful about George Wallace, our "known racism", etc.
About 4 years ago on a cruise, tablemates from CA were "amazed at my world knowledge". I had to overlook them as she was a former (but not recovering) McGovernite.
They think we are ignorant, illiterate, easily lead snake handlers(church), but they surely are moving down here in droves to partake of cheap (to them)land, low taxes, and good weather.Unfortunately, some of them are still looking down their noses even while enjoying our goodies.
vaudine
“You are 100% Georgian if you have ever had this conversation: “You wanna coke?” ~ “Yeah.” ~ “What kind?” ~ “Dr Pepper.””
LOL! I’d love a coke. Put it on the deal over there.
I certainly wouldn't allow my grand kids to attend any university in "the south", even with a full ride scholarship.
Neither their parents or I have access to a million dollars to mount an effective defense should they fall into a nightmare like that.
I mean no offense to my brethren here that are in the South, but facts are facts.
Most of all, that reporter will come away with a real knowledge of real people in the South.
I think you give northeast(and other) liberals/leftists a little too much credit. After all, you would likely be one of the first to agree that logical and rational argument are generally lost on them.
Their visit to the South may only serve to heighten their disdain for what's left of America's culture. They will make note of the fact that re-education has not taken hold in God's country and could inspire them to redouble their efforts.
On the other hand, teaching them the time honored art of snipe hunting could prove invaluable. Just tell 'em they are being caught to be resettled "up north" where the environment is, er, better.
Excellent point.
I live smack dab in the middle of them here in Huntsville, AL. (NASA and Army Aviation/Missile Command)
Nicest people you ever want to meet. Great town.
They just can’t remember what turn signals are for.
Semper Fi,
vaudine
First, I am not Jewish. Second, I am not from the North. Third, I grew up in the rural upper South (and still live here) in a miserable shack with no indoor bathroom or hot-and-cold running water. I didn't have this luxury until I was 26 years old. We didn't even have a telephone till earlier that year! (Shoot, our old chimney broke off and we had to stick a gin-pipe into it!) And it wasn't because we were lazy; my father worked like a dog and got nothing!!!
The whole point of my post was that liberals are a bunch of freaking hypocrites, but you want to go and get offended at it. For your information, I am well aware that most Southerners live exactly like everybody else in the country. But what many people (and apparently you as well) fail to realize is that many poor whites here in America until fairly recently (and today too) lived in Third World-style poverty, and all liberals did was laugh!!!!!
Why don't you get mad at someone else???
According to Calvin some people are elect and some are not. Human acts have nothing to do with this. People are either saints or sinners by Divine fiat and their deeds are either good or evil depending on the identity of the person who commits them.
To Hegelian liberals some people are the historical "thesis" and others are the "antithesis." Nobody asks to be born into either group; it just happens. The "thesis" are the elect who can do no wrong (Blacks, Hispanics, "gays," etc.) while the antithesis (whites, males, native American Protestantism, conservatism) can do nothing right. Perhaps you are unaware that, according to Thomas Sowell, whole generations of American youth are being trained in universities to discern the "just" position in any dispute based solely on the identities of the parties involved (race, gender, ethnicity) and not at all on what actually happened? It all boils down to thesis and antithesis, elect and reprobate.
This whole thing is merely an analogy. I am quite aware that John Calvin was much more conservative than anyone alive today. For that matter, so was John Brown!
He is partly correct, the main reason the large northern cities like NYC have so much crime is the huge influx of welfare seekers and criminals that moved from the south for the freebies. THANK YOU NYC!!!!!
I’m a lifelong northerner. My husband and I both work for national companies.
His company has offered him a promotion to either Nashville or Birmingham, AL.
We are seriously considering it. My company has told me if I go with him I can move to either location.
We would be paid more and we took a trip down to each place to help in our decision making to look at houses, schools etc.
We are moving. It’s only a matter of which city.
Hey, I resemble that remark. LOL,, I even bought a couple holes in the ground so they'll plant my yankee ass here forever. bwwwwaaaaaahhahhahahhahahhahhah
Brilliant post!
I worked for a company that was purchased by a multi-national company based in NY. They came down and set our pay scale significantly lower than our sidekicks in the north because Southerners work slower. They sent in some racial observers because Southerners are racists and we need someone who knows about manners.
Thank God I got a job for a civilized company based in the South.
I worked for a company that was purchased by a multi-national company based in NY. They came down and set our pay scale significantly lower than our sidekicks in the north because Southerners work slower. They sent in some racial observers because Southerners are racists and we need someone who knows about manners.
Thank God I got a job for a civilized company based in the South.
I worked for a company that was purchased by a multi-national company based in NY. They came down and set our pay scale significantly lower than our sidekicks in the north because Southerners work slower. They sent in some racial observers because Southerners are racists and we need someone who knows about manners.
Thank God I got a job for a civilized company based in the South.
I worked for a company that was purchased by a multi-national company based in NY. They came down and set our pay scale significantly lower than our sidekicks in the north because Southerners work slower. They sent in some racial observers because Southerners are racists and we need someone who knows about manners.
Thank God I got a job for a civilized company based in the South.
You could not Pay me to live north of the Mason-Dixon line.
I was born in NY, in fact most of my family lives up there. I love horses and from the time I could read I would pour horse themed books, most of them took place in the south and through them it was a place I always wanted to live. As soon as I could I moved, I’ve been down here for 20 years. All of my friends are true southerners, they have adopted me and I am honored by it. I love the culture, the attitude and most of all the people. The south scares the crap out of northerners because they remain true to what is great about America. They are patriot, loyal, have tons of common sense, they are mostly Christians, and they are proud of America. They still teach manners down here, children answer adults “yes ma’am, yes sir” (something my mom can’t believe), we know our neighbors and help whenever we can. The south is what the rest of America used to be and it is the greatest place for me. I would rather live in a trailer in Georgia than a penthouse on Park Avenue any day of the week.
That is great. A few months ago my dad was visiting and we were out to dinner, he asked for a vodka and soda, it came back vodka and coke. I explained to him that all things in the south are Coke, you have to specify.
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