southern musings...

i love the south. i love living in the south. i love practically everything about the south-- the mountains, the rivers, the sweet tea lifestyle, the long and hot summers, the relatively mild winters-- what's not to like?

southern football fans.

i'll be the first to admit i'm not as politically astute as i should be. i've just never been polarized that way. i've grown up in a very red state, and i currently live in a very red state. to top it off, i live in a southern red state, and i think there is a very specific distinction between southern red states and non-southern red states.

you see, in a southern red state, it's ok to burn someone in effigy.

some of you may know that the LSU/Alabama game occurred this past weekend. nick saban is alabama's head coach. nick saban used to be LSU's head coach. prior to nick saban coming to baton rouge, LSU had been irrelevant in college football for over a decade, if not longer. however, in a few short years, LSU won the 2003 national title (over, wait, who was it, i forgot....)

then, the miami dolphins came calling. saban had always wanted to coach in the pros, so he made the choice to leave. it didn't work out, so after two years, alabama mortgaged the state to bring him in.

apparently, that was a sin punishable by death. never mind that the LSU job was not open at the time. immediately after the announcement, LSU fans circled the LSU/Alabama home game on their calendars. two years in advance.

never mind that LSU ended up winning last year's national championship.

so what happened in the days leading up to saturday's game? a collective group of people burned a saban mock-up. i am not kidding.

fast forward to gametime. i'm sitting in our usual watering hole with our usual gameday crowd, and one of them brings up the 'bonfire', laughingly.

as i was not amused, i went on a rant about something like that being akin to a hate crime. seriously, think about it. they took a representation of a man and burned it to ashes. the hatred toward this man is astounding to me. is it impossible to just say 'thank you, nick, but i hope my team whoops your team today' and leave it at that? do you hear about this anywhere else in america?

long story short, the reward for my tirade was a sure-fire uninvitation to future events. but you know what, i don't care. i grew up in the south. i love the south. but it scares me a little bit to know that this kind of stuff still goes on in the south, racially motivated or not.

saturday was the first time i thought seriously about moving out of the south.