The Heart of Dixie

The license plates reflect the self-image of the people of the state. In Mississippi you are welcomed to “The Hospitality State “. Louisiana will remind you that they consider themselves the “Sportsman’s Paradise”. My home state, "Sweet Home Alabama”, takes pride in being “The Heart of Dixie”. Personal bias aside, I think that Alabama got it right. In fact, I believe it would be entirely appropriate if all three states adopted the same slogan, since collectively, politically, ideologically, and geographically, they are the “Heart” of Dixie. 

Unfortunately, “Dixie” is dead. It died at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant and the Union’s Army of the Potomac. There have been various attempts to revive it since then, but inevitably, its proponents are faced with the reality of the futility of trying to raise the dead.

However, the “South”… the land that I love, is alive and well. The land of breathtaking beauty, mountains, beaches, rivers and lakes is still there. The incomparable cooking, naturally friendly people, beautiful women, and that wonderful way in which they speak that sounds like music to my ears is still there.

God has blessed Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana with incredible natural resources, including timber, water, fertile soil and wildlife, iron ore, limestone, coal, petroleum, natural gas, as well as fish, and shellfish.

Each state is home to highly respected universities, including The University of Alabama and Auburn University, The University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, and Louisiana State University.

But, for whatever reason, too many people in all three states can’t get past the war. The Confederate generals are deified. The battle flag is memorialized. When I was in school the teachers and the textbooks did not even call it a “civil war”. It was “The War Between the States”. Too many people are still fundamentally opposed to accepting the fact that “All men are created equal”… that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners” could possibly be equal. Somehow, the educators in the schools I attended managed to convince themselves and their students that the Civil War wasn’t about “slavery” at all. It was simply a question of “State’s Rights”.

I am convinced that this carefully nurtured illusion of innocence for one of the great crimes against humanity is the reason why Mississippi ranks 50^th, Alabama 49^th, and Louisiana 48^th in education. This is why Mississippi ranks 50^th, Alabama 47^th, and Louisiana 49^th, in poverty rates. This is why only 10% of the white voters in Mississippi, only 10.5% in Louisiana, and only 13.3% of white voters in Alabama voted for America’s first Black President in 2012.

During World War II Germany and Japan were mortal enemies of the United States. Both were totally defeated and forced to surrender unconditionally. Today both countries are among America’s strongest allies. Both are among the world’s most economically powerful nations. Both Germany and Japan faced and condemned the mistakes of their past and forged a future with constitutions forbidding a repeat of the mistakes of the past. Both countries have highly rated educational systems for their children. Neither country attempts to glorify those that led them into war and defeat. Neither country makes excuses for or tries to minimize or justify the atrocities committed in its name.

As I watched two American Presidents in Selma, Alabama commemorating the 50^th anniversary of that “Bloody Sunday” on the bridge that bears the name of an insignificant Confederate general, I was struck by the symbolism. As they walked across the bridge, one Black, one white, one in the right lane, the other in the left lane, one republican, one democrat, the white President that signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act, the Black President that watched helplessly as the Supreme Court rendered it impotent. As the two American Presidents walked hand in hand with others across that bridge with others that had been there 50 years earlier, I wondered what the 90% of white voters in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana that did not vote for the Black President were thinking. As they passed underneath the stately arch that bears the name of the grand dragon of the ku klux klan for which the bridge is named, I wondered what he and the other klansmen thought of the spectacle.

Finally, I thought of the blood, the blood shed by so many to make that moment necessary and possible.

The “heart” of Dixie lives on, but “Dixie” is dead. It died in the war. The war was wrong. The Confederacy was a tragic mistake. Slavery was an abominable sin. It’s over. I hope that someday, the people of the South will let it go. The incredibly brave soldiers, Union and Confederate, that died in that war deserve to rest in peace, knowing that their sacrifices were not in vain. The best possible legacy for all of them would be for the people of the South to have the best education in America, not the worst. It would be fitting if the people of the south were as economically solvent as the people of Germany and Japan, and if the children of the South was taught what really happened in American history.

It would be fitting if the people of the South could vote for their President based on the “content of his or her character, not the color of his or her skin”.

I believe. One day. They will.