General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ...and then a man rode through the lines bearing a white flag. [View all]Aristus
(66,307 posts)called the South.
I was born and raised in Texas to an all-Southern family based in Alabama and Georgia. My great-great-great-grandfather, Bright W. Hargrove, signed the order of secession for the State of Georgia. Every one of my relatives who fought in the Civil War fought for the Confederacy. I'm not an idle keyboard commando on the issue.
I remember growing up with the sound of cicadas in the trees, and the smell of honeysuckle drifting through the window on Sunday mornings before church. I remember the kindness of neighbors and even strangers. I remember the reassuring closeness of family members, however distantly-related. And I remember how these same kind, loving people would turn into reddened, quivering towers of helpless rage whenever the subject turned to "The War of Northern Aggression", or the thought that "neegras" could receive anything like equal treatment with white people. I don't miss that part of the South at all.
Whatever the racial problems in the North, we never codified it in legal language. There seems to be no overt sense of entitlement or lingering resentment. I long for the day when Southerners lose the delusion of a grand and glorious way of life that is gone with the wind, never to return.