American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God

 

The old saying: “American by birth, Southern by the grace of God” certainly applies to me.

I’m an ethnic Southerner who was raised in the north – but who, for the past 25 years (with the exception of my three year educational exile to the permafrost of Fort Wayne, Indiana) has lived in the Deep South.  In fact, for the past 17 years, I have lived so far in the Deep South that it is really barely Southern at all – being south of the South.  But we were graciously permitted membership in the Confederacy, given the tolerance and ethnic diversity of that particular manifestation of American federalism.  Moreover, only two other states suffered as long as we did in the so-called Reconstruction as did Louisiana.  So we – my state and my person – have earned the bona fides to consider what it means to be Southern, though perhaps by means of a circuitous route.

So permit me to ponder – while pondering is still permitted in our Reunited States.

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