Redneck: In defense of a word and a people
Thursday, June 19, 2008I’m both surprised and pleased at all the attention the mainstream media’s focusing on Southern ethnicity these days. It reminds me of the resurgence of ethnic groups within what was supposed to be the united and assimilated Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in those artificial nations’ latter days. Could this be a similar omen of what’s happening within the DC empire? Just asking …
Anywar, here’s the latest on us, and it’s darn well worth reading. Southerners are:
… the descendants of the Scots-Irish who pushed the American frontier across first the Appalachians and then ever westward, spreading as far north as the hills of Pennsylvania and as far south and west as wide-open Texas, leaving their manners, speech and customs an indelible if often unremarked part of the American character.
Oh, yes, rednecks are also fighters. Which means that, ignored and snubbed in times of peace, or just patronized by those who think their very name an insult, they are always called on when the country’s in real trouble. To this day, they are part of the backbone of the U.S. military. They are, in short, people to tie to. They will stand their ground, as America’s enemies have discovered since 1776 and long before. They need no one to come to their defense, let alone shield them from their honest name. Yes, they can be touchy, but only about matters of honor. …
Their code is as involved as any Bedouin’s, and maybe more so than the Southern gentleman’s. Indeed, the two – gentleman and redneck – are part of the Southern whole, complementing and competing with each other, each half-envying, half-pitying the other but aware they share an indissoluble bond that involves the land, the language and whatever is the essence of what the South is, or was.
Sounds like something Michael Hill or Grady McWhiney might’ve written. Good to see our story becoming mainstream.
On The Web: http://www.dixienet.org/rebellion/2008/06/redneck-in-defense-of-word-and-people.html