Day: September 3, 2011

I’m from The South.

No, I’m not a “The South shall rise again” kind of guy. That ship has sailed and I, like most of the Southerners I know are good with it.

I was born and raised South of the Mason-Dixon line. I’m proud of where I came from. I’m proud of the freedoms I enjoyed as a child and that I was safe no matter where I was in my local environment.

I’ve been thinking about being from The South because of a rather disturbing email exchange with someone I’ve known for years. I’m astounded at how after all this time, this person is comfortable denigrating all things Southern including apparently Me.

This characterization was in response to my mentioning offhandedly and with a certain amount of tongue in cheek that I had earthquake supplies, a personal plan, at least one gun with ammo, and that my family had a loose plan to meet at a central location in the event of some serious catastrophe.

I’ve got enough in emergency supplies to feed 2 people for at least 12 days. That’s BEFORE I have to get creative with water, or start hunting. I honestly think that I should have more, but this, as a minimum will do. I also think that I’m going to be feeding several of my neighbors who for one reason or another won’t be able to feed themselves.

My family seems to have always had a motto, “Better to have a plan you don’t need, than to need a plan you don’t have.” I don’t know if I read that somewhere and am using it to describe our desire to be ready for trouble or if it was something my Dad & Granddad said.

The next series of email responses frankly blew my mind.

In the course of the emails this person painted me as an irrelevant, ignorant, ammo hoarding, gun toting, survivalist, neo-nazi, with no social conscience, who was waiting for the end times!

It was as though because I wasn’t complacently expecting for the government to simply take care of me that somehow I was “Wrong-headed”.

When someone you know takes you to task like this, you can do a few things. Get offended, Get Angry, or Re-evaluate your stance.

99% of the time, I’ll pick door number 1 or door number 2. In this situation because of the long standing relationship and the fact that I have a lot of respect for this person, I chose door number 3.

I thought about my childhood and how that had shaped the man I would become. A man, by the way that in general I’m proud to be. I’m comfortable in my skin and getting more so with each passing day.

I’m shocked every time I encounter the kind of thinking that suggests somehow the South is full of a bunch of ignorant savages.

It’s astounding that educated, “Fair-Minded”, liberal people, get away with painting a picture suggesting that everyone in, or from The South are racist, rednecks, with rifles slung over their shoulders and pistols in their ass cracks. This characterization couldn’t be further from the truth…

Honestly, as a Southerner I find the generalization offensive. Particularly when these generalizations are delivered by people that supposedly know me.