Whistling Dixie

"Southern man better keep your head. Don't forget what your good book said. Southern change gonna come at last. Now your crosses are burning fast. Southern man" Neil Young from "Southern Man"

The nurse was in a twist as she came in with my Dixie Cup of depression solvers. Apparently some of the other inmates in the Asylum have complained that using "Dixie" cups for medication is a racist act, in that "Dixie" somehow advocates being a close minded, bible thumping, neanderthal with the common sense of a bar fly. This is just not true of the South. Dixie is a sense of pride amongst some, a heritage, a lifestyle, and to others an excuse to act like Republicans with a hard on. I told the nurse not to worry about it, that the subject would drift away as soon as Miley Cyrus started taking risque photos again, but it got me thinking.

Two articles in this mornings Herald, the local bird cage liner that these folks call a newspaper, got me kind a irked as I pounded my coffee, chain smoked some Marlboro Lights, and tried to think of something to follow yesterdays, "too dangerous to mention" blog. Then it hit me in the face like a Sturgeon being tossed at one of those outdoor fish markets. The big story on the front page was an article about the Confederate flag and how people feel that it is being flown on the grounds of the state house.

First of all, I'm not from around here, this isn't my heritage. My lineage is strictly California beach culture, I will rant and rave about sewage run off into Huntington Beach, but flags? Never paid that much attention to them. That was until I got here, and I wasn't seeing the same banners as I was in California. The Palmetto state has a navy flag with a palmetto tree and a crescent moon. It's bland, two color, but not at all intrusive. Seeing the "stars and bars" flying around my small town, I was aghast at first. Surely a symbol such as this should make people uneasy. And it does, apparently.

The NAACP has called for a African American boycott of South Carolina. Interesting that they would ask a state that is 30% black to boycott itself. With the power they wield they have managed to assure that no NCAA sporting championships can take place here, and are now trying to convince film makers not to shoot in South Carolina. All over a flag. I get it. If there was a swastika flying over the state house I would be livid too. But the locals, the Southern Men, The Sons of the Confederacy, see it as a symbol of pride and how their kin died in the "Act of Northern Aggression", yeah, some call the Civil war that. It's insanity. Surely not everyone in this state is a close minded bigot, right?

Well....

In the Viewpoint section of the fish wrap there was an editorial by the now retired former editor of the Herald. That means that at some point this guy, Terry Plumb, was in charge of the content of the paper. His editorial was entitled "S.C. beach, no not gay". Plumb, who you can send your disdain filled emails to at terry.plumb@gmail.com, sided with Gov. Mark Sanford in agreeing that South Carolina should not pay for advertising in the London Underground proclaiming S.C. to be a great vacation destination for gays. Here's the first quote that got me:
"I understand why leaders in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and New Orleans, which participated in the same campaign, might not have a problem with the message, but the notion of a gay-friendly South Carolina boggles the mind." Well, I thought as I continued reading, maybe this well educated type person might be taking a jab at the locals. Then this: "Sanford probably angered many constituents when he said South Carolina welcomes gay and lesbians to spend some of their estimated $40 billion in travel dollars here but that he was against using state money to target specific groups. What he should have said is that South Carolina won't pay for false advertising - that not only doesn't the Palmetto State have "gay beaches" but that our citizenry also doesn't like gays" Are you fucking ridding me? I had to read it twice, then once more out loud to make sure I wasn't fooling myself. But the hate mongering didn't stop there, folks.

The next paragraph he mockingly joked that the next tourism campaign should be geared towards Middle Easterners for our "burka friendly beaches". And then the capper. This is the quote that sealed the deal for today's blog.

"To be fair, South Carolina isn't obsessed with gays: we simply don't like people who aren't from around here or don't act or sound like us. In addition to not liking gays, we despise Hispanics, distrust Jews, and aren't too fond of Catholics."

This is where I live. This is my new home. If these statements would have come out in the LA Times, imagine the uproar. But here, it goes somehow unnoticed. Part of me hates my new home state.

What think you of this ignorance?

Dixie Cup of Love: The Gays and Lesbians of the World, you're welcome at my house anytime.