Old South and New North (or "How High is the Water, Ma?")

To those in the South, the North is still the hated oppressor.

The Northern States are almost uniformly Blue States, as opposed to the Backbone of the old Confederacy now shining Red States.  The North, filled with its folksy funny, mealy-mouthed  people like Garrison Keillor, and his not-quite-extremist enough humble Christianity.  And, oh my God, don't forget Michael Moore, Drew Carey and (wince) Barack Obama.

New York you can forget about.  It is hated and immoral.  And Boston?  Loathed.  Chicago, which is actually a very beautiful city, better than anything the South could offer (with the possible exception of New Orleans or Miami (but the latter isn't really a "Southern City" anyways)), yet she is hated down South.

The greatest Presidents this land could produce, from Lincoln to the Roosevelts, of course are looked upon as dangerous, even as they moulder in their graves.  The North will forever have its shadow upon the South, just as the old Stars and Bars still shadow the sides of some Southern State Flags.

And, truth be told, other than the obvious moral questions (slavery), I never held any geographic affinity for the North, or even really took sides with the North in the Civil War (or, as Southerners like to call it, the "War Between the States").  The industrialized, busying, feverish, factory wasteland North?  No sir, not me.  Wage slaves as far as the eye can see?  Nope.  Keep on walking.

That is, until you go there.  Then you will begin to see a dissonance of perceptions and reality.  At least when you get out of the big cities.  The "unionized" North, with its Democratic establishment governments and mayorships, the hordes of factory workers and virtual Socialists, suddenly give way to what the South, if her "politicians" could ever come close to putting their money where their mouth is, should aspire to.

There, I said it.

Walk down the street in a Northern town.  You will be amazed.  Where in the South you would be dodging trash in the street, graffiti on the sides of bridges and in the streets, and where you have to check your back, you see clean streets and a busy, but determined people. 

Down South,  go to a gasoline station on the highway, and you are likely overcome by tattoos, motorcycles with an air-gas mix far too gone on the air side, usually in gangs, loud and badly dated rock and roll music, and an attitude of a group of people that have become horribly desperate.

It is the New South -- wage slaves, impoverished by Mega-Churches blaring from every corner, good ol' old-time racism, and the fear and near-worship of Big Corporate because "they bring jobs."  And the "jobs" are only barely subsistence living.  The result is too many rats in one hole scratching for what little there is, and it isn't even enough. 

"Right-to-Work" laws and the massive, overwhelming destruction of the people's environment to try to attract Big Business and Big Oil and Big Banking and Big Insurance.  Take whatever they ask for, because they offer a little money.  Tear down the house for a little food for now. 

"How high is the water, Ma?"
"Three feet high, and rising."