Citizen of the Month

I've recently been motivated to contemplate how often I see "The South" being bashed and blamed for all the governmental ills we're suffering these days.
There are many grotesquely ignorant people on the net, but those that cherish a "Red State Blue State" mentality, and those that seem to feel that the SE United States with our "approval of slavery" and "rampant racism" are somehow running the country.

Wow. I run into it often. Disgruntled bigots of all races and creeds that shout "redneck", "goat fucker", "slave driver" etc, at anyone indicating that they're Southern. Seems like the new thing to do.
As much as I hate to admit it, I can't blame the Right Wing for this one. No, it's my own fellow Liberals (just a few of them) that routinely hand out this back-assward, uninformed opining about Dixie.
It's a shame. People who are supposed to be entertaining a philosophy that's free of such broad assertions and social stereotypes find themselves in the heart of the hypocrisy zone.

I find it more appalling than usual due to a recent debate I engaged in with some of my fellows elsewhere on the net. BushCo was compared to some sort of rising of the new "Nazi", "racist" South. The bigots also went on to mutter something about being part of the "Union".
But as I checked on a few things, I came to find that there is a serious shortage of "South" in the White House these days...

George Bush - Connecticut
Dick Cheney - Nebraska
Karl KKK Rove - Colorado
Scooter Libby - Connecticut
Michael Chertoff - New Jersey
Michael Mukasey - New York
Paul Wolfowitz - New York
Robert Gates - Kansas
Alberto Gonzales - Texas
Condi Rice - Texas

Texas, being "South" in association only, there's a tremendous lack of Southerners in that particular list of ingrates, miscreants and megalomaniacs.
Actually reads like the new "Union" rising. The Union that committed genocide of the American Indians more like.

Neo-Cons anyone?...

Bill Kristol - New York
Norman podhoretz - New York
Gordon Liddy - New Jersey
John Bolton - Maryland
Richard Perle - New York
Joe Lieberman - Connecticut

With that group of yankees and westerners running the show more Southerners like Jimmy Carter, MLK, George Washington, Steve Cohen, Thomas Jefferson, John Edwards, and Al Gore would sure come in handy right about now.
And of course, if Texas is to be considered part of the "South", it gave us President Johnson and The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Bottom line? Most of the good done in America's history, with the clear exception of attempting to cling to slavery, was done by Southerners.

Recently, the FBI released Hate Crime statistics for 2006 and I think the good folks out west and up north might be interested in them. Or perhaps not. Hate crimes are up during the Bush era and not in the places most people would think...

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/table12.html

Entire South - 1539

Mississippi - 0 Alabama - 1 (Virginia is worst by far at 341 reported hate crimes)

Entire North - 3244

West Coast - 1385
California - 1297 (worst in the nation by far)
South West - 518
Mid West - 1280
Plains States - 177
Alaska - 6
Hawaii - ?

Interesting. The "Union" up north there has the South beat by a mile when it comes to racial and social hate.
"Liberal" California is a disgrace according to these stats.
Peaceful, beautiful Vermont had 21, but that "cesspool of racism", Mississippi, has none? None.

I've lived up north, out west and everywhere in between. I made and have good friends, and your states are great places to visit for the most part. But these statistics reflect exactly what I always experienced. The west, the north...more violent, colder, more unforgiving than the dreaded, evil, racist, "Red" South.

Give it up non-Southerners. You have no clue just how many genuine Liberals there are in the South. We have inter-racial peace and love in "The South". We have understanding, acceptance, and more tolerance than you'll ever know way down yonder in the land of cotton.
So for all the yankee, inner-city and surfer-boy bigots out there in the rat race, take a good long look in the mirror. Yep, that's the face us "rubes" are laughing and shaking our heads at.
We got peace. When are you going to catch up?

For all you do, geography Nazis. This blog's for you.