A very long AP article about the nature of Southernness.
As with most articles of this type, there are the inevitable sets of surveys and polls and "scientific" analysis and commentary and hand-wringing and the substitution of one stereotype for another.
Do I consider myself Southern? Well, of course. But, of all the supposed traits that somehow make us distinctive, I've got as many of them as I don't, and I suppose the most defining thing about my association is simply geographic. I'm a Southerner because I live in the South.
All the hoo-hah about it all, though, reminds me of nothing so much as the ridiculous ongoing French debate about keeping non-French words from contaminating their language. Once there is a concerted effort to stop something from changing, rather than keeping it alive, it kills it. There's good and bad to everything--the trick is finding the good things, and letting go of the bad.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 23, 2005 01:01 PMI still like the sound of freedom fries and victory toast. I think the French will have to worry about Arabic words creeping into their national vocabulary ... oui?
Posted by: MarcV at November 23, 2005 01:22 PMOh, I'm sure they've got the situation well in hand.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at November 23, 2005 01:36 PM