Southern Livin'

[lizzybennet]

I snapped this picture as I was stuck in traffic today. Don't misunderstand me. I love the South. But there are some aspects of it that I don't understand. The need to still fly this flag is one of them. It reminded me of an experience I had a few years ago when I worked at Wal-Mart pharmacy. I was chatting with a Pharmacist about the Civil War. His great, great grandaddy had fought in the war, on the Confederate side. As he was telling me about his ancestor, I was counting pills and sort of just half listening. Suddenly I realized that he was crying. The story he was telling me about his grandaddy was so special to him that it had moved him to tears. This is what he told me: His grandaddy had been held in a Northern prisoner of war camp. When the war was over and he was released, he walked all the way home to Alabama. When he arrived at his home, he didn't go immediately in. He got the attention of one of his slaves and had the slave bring him clean clothes. Then he proceeded to clean himself up before he allowed his family to see him again.

Comments

[texastea.livejournal.com]

It's about guys who still wear their jeans too tight, and three days in a row, with lineman's boots tied high up on the outside of those jeans. They come home to girl-women who are good-looking in a lazy, dirty way, who scream at the kids and give the baby tea with milk and sugar in a bottle. It's about old drunks who talk about "The Day" as if they had one, when they really did not. It's about pack jackels who will attack young men who do not embrace this mindset - weak masses of individuals who have never attempted to rise above the crowd.

I know some of these and actually love some of these. But I sure as heck am not one of these, and am thankful for that!

There's another face to the south, and I hope I exemplify that more than I do that awful redneckish one. I have relatives who, although they don't fly that flag, have the predjudiced mindset that is the core of it all.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

I have to say your strong comments surprised me! I was actually hesitant to say anything too judgemental about that rebel flag and all it represents for fear of offending some of my southern friends. I was specifically thinking of you for some reason. Not that I thought you embraced that mindset, but I know many people hold the flag as sacred although they reject the message it can symbolize. It can be more a symbol of heritage than hatred.

You summed it up perfectly, though. There are many unique sides to the south and those of us who grew up here have learned to see them all, and in some ways, accept them all.