Heh. You were doing so well; I wondered why the even split between thumbs up and thumbs down. Then you said something about Rednecks in a derogatory way. Seems to be a common sticking point for many of these comments. I think there's a genuine rift between the Southern way of living and the Yankee way. I'm from Oregon and the west, so when I moved to Missouri in my high school years, I was able to experience a bit of the difference between US regions. It's not fair to deride the folks we don't get along with. I'm guilty of this, too. Plenty of the good ol' boys I graduated with hated me just for being from the 'City', when I grew up on farms myself--NW farms, though. I developed a healthy disgust for the closed-minded, ignorance-loving jerks in my new neighborhood. But again, not fair--there were also (actually, many more) folks who were very genuine and kind to me. They were sometimes "simpler folks" (their own words) and sometimes much more educated than me. I'm just writing this response to "People and life in Portland" because I really liked the first part of the comment and I can see myself falling into the trap of writing the second half. I just hope that people will eventually see that A. freethinking people from the north are sometimes met with such animosity in the south that they fail to enjoy any of the other charms, so try to see where they're coming from and B. It's important to try to see the good people you're lumping into your foul summation of an enormous region of the country. There are plenty of jerks in the north, too :)
Rick | Los Angeles, CA | Report Abuse