Tuesday, March 10, 2009

People complain and make fun of the Southern states as if all of the rednecks, illiterates and inbreds of our nation lived in that area. Not so. I happen to know that there is just as much white trash society in the Northern states.
A case in point: Southwest Indiana. I lived in Southwest Indiana and I am here to tell you that the trailer park mentality is alive and kicking in Knox County, Indiana. Saturday afternoon my daughter had several of her friends over and one of them asked me if I knew that the Ku Klux Klan was once actually centered in Indiana. Many people think of the Klan as big bellied good old boys who hide under white robes and create mayhem. And by good old boys they mean Southerners.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
First: A good old boy is not some inbred mouth breathing redneck with poor social skills and even poorer hygiene. A good old boy is a good natured, easy going gentleman who, though he may not be of the finest pedigree, is certainly not a skirt chasing liquered up night mare. Good old boys may or may not be poor but they are most certainly not mysogynists nor are they racists. I love good old boys and have several who are dear friends. And I tell you this: when I was in Europe and I had to call across the Atlantic to speak to someone at my bank I was most relieved to hear the Southern drawl of the gentleman who answered the phone. Without patronizing or creating a big to do he quietly handled my problem. He was indeed a good old boy.
Second: People seem to think that Southern men are somehow related to the inbred hillbillies of "Deliverance". And while the novel and subsequent novel were both set in rural Georgia. And though I myself have found myself in backwards areas of Alabama where, I promise you, people still think Jefferson Davis is the President of our great Confederacy. Those kinds rural inbred communities exsist everywhere. The worsening economy and the growth of the uneducated lower class has created an increase in these areas. But for some reason, Knox county seems to have a plethora of them. The tooth to IQ point ration is in the negative and seems destined to stay that way. Just drive out by the river bottoms and listen for the banjos.
Because they are pickin' away out there, waiting. They are playing in rural Pennsylvania, and Lord knows they are alive and well out Wyoming and Nebraska.
D.C.Stephenson, a Grand Poobah during the 30's lived in Indiana. White Supremists and others of their ilk are not solely creatures of the South. They are everywhere. I lived in the South for years and came to Indiana and was amazed that there were no black people in Knox county. Especially not in the little cess pool called Oaktown. The ones that came here were migrant workers and were treated with less consideration than the Mexican migrants. Come to Indiana during the harvest season and then tell me about how prejudiced we are in the South.


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