...And Southern By the Grace of God!

Reading this blog, it occurs to me not so much what you believe, but what kind of person you are. You are optimistic, stout-hearted and keep your focus on the positive. You are self-confident in your dealings with people and circumstance. You are accountable for your actions and hold others to theirs, without malice or over reaction. You would doubtless be happy and satisfied with your lot even if, like me, you were born in the great city of Pittsburgh of German ethnic background. I can understand your attitude toward the Civil war and the brave men on both sides. The Nazis appalled me, watching films out of concentration camps right after VE day was paralyzing. How could anyone be so systematically evil? At the same time, i take pride at what a heckuva fight a few outnumbered outgunned Krauts put up. People are funny. Once i learned to put up with myself, i've had no trouble cutting slack for anyone else.

I had the benefit of "Coming of Age" in the Fayetteville area (Ft Bragg). At the time I was developing my own code of manhood; I feel fortunate to have been steeped in classic southern traditions and values during that critical time in my life. Great post.

the South. As you've noted the women are womanly, and when a pretty girl drawls out a y'all you have get a mop because I've melted into a puddle on the floor. And I'll never forget Queenie, the large matronly woman who ran a restaurant in Dallas that had three specials: one meat, two meat or three meat (or her peach cobbler either, yum!). My kind of place.

I also find your comments about Southern history very interesting, for the more I read about it (in particular things Lincoln himself said) the more it seems to me that the notion that the civil war was a noble crusade to free the slaves is greatly exaggerated historical revisionism on the part of the winning side to justify their actions. It reminds of a Simpson episode where Apu goes for the citizenship test, and when asked about the Civil War he goes into a lot of details about the various reasons behind the war and the examiner cuts him off and says to him 'just say it was about slavery' or something like that.

I personally think that if the North had used 'let's go free the Negroes' as their battle cry they would have had a hard time recruiting. After all, if bigotry is based on ignorance and most blacks were in the South not the North, doesn't that lead to some interesting thoughts?

Just look at what happened after the war, a lot of newly freed slaves headed to Northern cities and didn't exactly get a warm welcome, or is it just a coincidence that Jesse Jackson Jr.,Al Sharpton, Charles Rangel, etc., all seem to be in NY city? And weren't the folks from around the turn of the century like Margeret Sanger (I forget the name of their ideology) NorthEast liberals? And even more recently, where have most of the race-related riots or disturbances been? Not to gloss over anything that did happen down South, but to point out that racism wasn't or isn't isolated there by a long shot, as seems to be commonly believed.

One last point to ponder: if owning slaves is associated with bigotry, what does that say about those that employ illegal immigrants (they are not at all equivalent to slaves but are often held in conditions similar to indentured servants) and those that argue for their necessity?

God Bless Flagwaver,
Well said, well meant. I've lived all over the South. SC (twice), MS,(3 times) LA (The real LA), AR and southern MO. I'm for now stuck in the frozen tundra, but biding my time til I can find suitable employment where the heat and humidity bring an abundance of fragrant flowers, sweet tea and talk of the weather. While the snow is pretty, a Magnolia, a Dogwood, an Azalea in bloom is by far a prettier site.
Thanks for a well written article that transported me back home.
Taproot

It is hard to imagine living anywhere else. I wish everyone could live here but hope they don't.
Your grasp of the Civil War is better than most. Most don't realize the war was over State's Right to Cecede from the Union. Emancipation Proclamation was not issued until 1863 and then only pertained to those states that had ceceded from the Union. Lincoln was a great man. But...BUT...Lincoln was a politician. He wanted to keep Maryland and West Virginia (which had ceceded from Virginia when Virginia ceceded from the United States) in the Union. Funny. It was okay for a county to cecede from a state but not for a state to cecede from a union.....politics.
Southern cooking. Nothing like it in the world. Another cusine right up there with Italian, Mexican and Chinese.
Football. Every time we play one of them damnyankee schools we get even a little bit more.
Best golf courses in the world.
Prettier women don't exist.
The South is Home.