DADvocate

I am a Southerner. I grew up and lived the first 38 years of my life in Tennessee. My voice contains a combination of Southern drawl and hillbilly twang. I say "Ya'll" because I don't know any other word or phrase to take its place. Although I now live in Ohio, I love the South, which I is why I get all riled up when those damn Yankees put on airs of superiority. Frankly, I wouldn't mind kicking some Yankee ass.

In an article about the Ford/Coker Senate race in Tennessee, the New York Times started with this sentence.

Tennessee’s open Senate seat stayed in Republican hands on Tuesday night after a campaign that drew national attention for its nastiness and for Democratic hopes that it would break a longstanding race barrier.

"longstanding race barrier"

Guess what uppity New Yorkers. New York ain't never had no black Senators, period. Mississippi had two during Reconstruction, Illinois claims two and MaMassachusetts, one. To his credit, Harold Ford states that racism played no role in his loss.

If the New York Times wants to talk racism, why don't they talk about the governor's race in Ohio, Blackwell/Strickland. Ken Blackwell is a dark skinned black person, unlike Harold Ford, Jr. or Barack Obama. I've followed his career since I moved to the northern Kentucky/southern Ohio region. He is an honest, ethical man. He was soundly defeated by Strickland for the governor's race. There's plenty of racism in Ohio. During the past ten years the KKK has erected public displays in downtown Cincinnati during Christmas time.

There's plenty of racism in other places outside the South. This list of mass racial violence from Wikipedia doesn't show a single Southern city in the last 20 years.

• 1991: Crown Heights Riot
• 1992: Los Angeles
• 2001: 2001 Cincinnati Riots
• 2001: Seattle Mardi Gras Riots

But it does include Ohio, the state where a black man lost the governor's race.

Of course, Ken Blackwell is a Republican and quite conservative. The race card only gets played for Democrats. Only Southerners or law enforcement officers can be racist. The liberals at the New York Times have their heads so far up their collective butts that they are writing what they see, crap.

And now another uppity New Yorker, Rep. Charles Rangel, says, "...who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?" Charlie you should have brought this up last Semptember right after Katrina hit. We could have saved a lot of money rebuilding Gulfport, and other areas of Mississippi. We could have just moved everyone in Mississippi to that little bit of heaven called New York. Plus, you would have shown us just how much you compassionate Democrats really care.

Give me a choice between New York and Mississippi and I'll head south every time.

Hey, all you Yankees still living with Civil War stereotypes! This is the 21st Century. Besides, the South has been ahead of the North in many ways for a long time.

All literate, right-thinking Americans know that the first college in the nation to admit women students was Blount College (now the University of Tennessee). William Blount, Governor of the Territory South of the Ohio, secured admission of his daughter Barbara, Kittie Kain, Colonel McClung's daughter, and three other young ladies of the capital's aristocracy to the institution named for him.

If your editors have a genuine passion for verification, you can go to Knoxville and get all six names from the doorplates of the dormitories named for America's first coeds.

If you preening, narcissistic Yankees would quit adoring yourselves, you might see why the South is great. Come visit some time. But please don't stay. We don't need no New York South.