I’m a Southerner, born’n’bred.
I like grits, hold the door for folk (not just women), and say "Yes, sir / ma’am" to my elders. I used to own a chrome plated pick-em-up truck, I’ve gone to church twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday, and can cook fried chicken and turnip greens like nobody’s business. I speak with a fair-to-middlin’ Southern accent, say "y’all", love me some country music, and can belt out a good (former) Southern Baptist’s rendition of "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine".
I was born in the mid-1950’s and vividly remember Jim Crow segregation. How many of you have actually eaten in a segregated restaurant, or drunk from a "Whites Only" water fountain ? I have, yet I’m strongly in favor of racial equality.
How many of you were ever dirt poor ? Lived in a trailer ? Worked in a mill ? I have.
Despite all its flaws, though, I love the South.
More after the flip ...
Sunday dinner (that’s "lunch" to the unenlightened) on the front porch with gallons of sweet ice tea, and pecan pie for dessert. An insistence on a level of politeness in public discourse. Magnolias, ramps, mulberries, Spanish moss and watermelon. Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Harper Lee and yes, even Margaret Mitchell. A true change of seasons (in NC, at least) without the brutal winter of the Northeast and Midwest. A sensibility about honesty, fair play and helping others, and dignity in the face of grinding poverty. R&B, Soul, Bluegrass, Jazz and Rockabilly. NASCAR (granted, that one’s a toss-up).
Yup, I’m a Southerner.
I’m also a dyed-in-the-wool progressive and am not the only one down in Dixie.
I’m a member of a wildly liberal, incredibly diverse United Church of Christ congregation. I read dKos every day, am a Front Pager at Street Prophets, and gave to Larry Kissel’s NC-08 campaign. I’m an out gay man and have taken on homophobes everywhere I’ve encountered them, changing at least a few narrow minds in the process. I was ecstatic when Harvey Gant ran for the US Senate, and loathe Robin Hayes & Liddy Dole. I dream of a South that has awakened to the exploitation of plutocrats and the radical religious right, has reasserted the dignity of its working class, and fully rejoins the U. S. of A as a rightful heir to Thomas Jefferson.
But looka-here, it’s not easy being a progressive in the South. In fact, it’s down right discouraging at times, especially when fellow progressives outside the region bemoan the South as a lost cause. Please remember that it was Tarheels who elected Senator John Edwards. Plus Larry Kissel came within a few hundred votes of taking the House seat (NC-08) of Robin "Flipper" Hayes, that odious creature whose vote flip was responsible for CAFTA, which cost North Carolina thousands of jobs. Yes, I know – we kept electing Jesse Helms, too – deal with it, the South is and forever will be a mass of contradictions.
The American poet Walt Whitman addressed contradiction when he wrote "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."
The South does indeed contain multitudes, more than 20% of the total US population. Properly organized, Southern voters can be an enormous force for change, especially since more have begun to wake up to the fact that Republicans and Evangelicals have sold us down river.
However, Southern progressives still face an up-hill battle, and left-wing-nuttiness like "The South is a Lost Cause" doesn’t help one iota. So, to fellow Kossacks who would spread that meme like kudzu overgrows a stand of pine, I have a few choice words :
Shut the fuck up, y’all.
Bless your hearts ...