I have to agree...this thread has indeed gone awry, as expected.
In looking back on my post, I may have come off as blasting the South. I apologize for that. I truly love living down here. In fact, my intent was to make the point that the South is not what it is perceived to be by those in other regions. I came to the South for grad school to explore this for myself. What I found was that there are indeed stereotypical people and events that do take place. However, this can be said of all regions. The frustration I displayed is based upon the fact that the only face that the media shows of the South is the "bigotted, bible-beating , redneck" stereotypical one. What you don't see is beautiful metropolitan areas like Atlanta and rural areas like Savannah (Yes, I know that there's plenty more to the South). What you don't see is the the fact that people don't have perpetual scowls and the lack of manners that you may find in some areas up North (Yes, I can say that having come from there). You don't see any of this....you just see what they think Northerners want to see and that's a shame.
My frustration with the South (as displayed earlier) is that it continues to fuel those stereotypes with this continual onslaught of church and state incursions. I understand where they are coming from, but I'm not sure they understand what it looks likes from the outside.....or they just don't care.
Again, I apologize for my tone in my earlier post. It's amazing what you see when your revisit your own words in a different time/context.
