...by the grace of God

A friend of mine posted a status update on FaceBook yesterday. He has since deleted the update, and I don't remember it verbatim, but it was something to the effect of...

Just saw a FB post, and it reminded me of how glad I am I left the South. People are racist, live entitled and unintelligent.

Of course, there were a myriad of comments under the status update along the lines of, "Not everybody!", and "I'm not!". My personal favorite was "Now I remember why I left the north. People make sweeping generalizations and are eliteists and unintelligent."

I was really surprised at how upset that guy's comment made me. I like to think that I generally have my reactions in check. It takes a lot to make me mad. On top of that, I have never been one to stand up for my "Southern heritage". For some reason, though, that one comment by my friend really made my blood boil!

I couldn't help but think more and more about the comment and how it made me mad, but really what I pondered was why it made me so mad. Of course, there was the insinuation that I'm a racist who, despite my unintelligence, feels entitled (to exactly what, I don't know). That insinuation, though, couldn't be what made me mad. I've never been one to become angry at accusations that aren't true. It's like a mom joke. They never offended me, because I know that my mama isn't so fat she uses a VCR for a beeper.

No, the more I thought about it, I realized what it is. It's that the South is pretty cool, and this guy just badmouthed it. Yeah, we have the heat and humidity...and the bugs. But do you know what else we have? Courtesy. Close-knit families. Sweet Tea. We open doors for each other at the gas station. When someone drops a twenty on the sidewalk we (well, most of us) pick it up, chase them down, and return it. We know how to work hard, but we know how to take it easy, too. On my initial lap around the park when I ride, nearly everybody gets a preliminary "hello" nod...and everybody returns the nod with a smile. Simply put, we're nice.

Sure, we have our downside. There are indeed racist people in the South. You know what, though? There are racist people in the North, Midwest, East Coast, West Coast, and everywhere between. Ignorance knows no regions. I ran into many more toothless rednecks over a weekend in Pennsylvania than I see in any given month in Georgia.

What also bugged me about what my friend said was the fact that he's from the south. If he was born and raised in New York City and had had this skewed perception of Southern people, I wouldn't care nearly as much. This guy, though, was one of my best friends when I lived in Tennessee. We used to race across Nashville - me in my mid-80's, beat-up Isuzu P'up and him in his mid-80's, beat-up Ford Bronco - to go hang out with my girlfriend and her friend that he was trying date. I look back fondly at that last summer before I moved to Georgia. We had as much fun as two 16-year-olds could probably have over the course of a summer. Now, he is 30. he and his (Georgia native) wife live in NYC, and racist, unintelligent, and entitled are his thoughts when he looks back at where he's from?

It just makes me sad, that's all. I don't generally beam with "Southern pride". I am, however, happy with how and where I was raised. It would take a lot of money to get me to go anywhere else, too (if you're offering, I can be reached at daniel.dorris@gmail.com).

Oh...and we're gonna rise again.