I read through some of this and felt like my mind was turning to mush! All this North/South thing is totally ridiculous. When I was in Uncle Sam's Army and at my permanent duty station I roomed in old WWII barracks with another southerner and two "Yankees". One from Indiana and one from Brooklyn. We had a great time together ragging each other about our speech and about the things we ate as kids.
I had my Mom send me a 2x4 size flag of the Confederacy and hung it over my bunk to rouse the other two guys. the guy from Indiana had an 8x10 of Gen Sherman beside his bed.:) There was no animosity in any of this. We played hearts together nearly every night and had beer and a schnitzel sandwich as an ongoing tradition.
There's good and bad everywhere...it doesn't make one hoot in hell where you're from. It's all about what's in the heart and in the immortal words of Forest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that".
