Well, yesterday I got back from South Carolina and let me tell you my thoughts of the south were bolstered. On Thursday, September 22nd I went down to South Carolina to go see my little brother graduate from the United States Army. Like expected, he was a bit skinny and a bit sun burned, he also had sore throat due to all the yelling. Being there at Fort Jackson, recording the troops with my father’s camera, I could almost hear Michael Moore narrating something about the poor fighting the war. My guess would be that 75% percent of the troops are there because of the money and the other 25% are actually patriotic. Of course I have nothing to base that on, it’s just a guess.
I hoped that going down to the south would change the way I thought of it…it didn’t. One of the first things you notice of course are the accents. They range from pretty understandable to nearly impossible to understand. The other thing, the main thing was the stench of conservatism. From the tons of little chapels, to the Christian stores, to the redneck bumper stickers. I particaly remember the “Extreme Teen Bible” I saw at the mall and the “It’s not a choice it’s a child” sticker on a truck. On top of that, we stayed at military town, which meant the area was just way too saturated with patriotism. Most of the stores had some kind of military stuff on their displays and storefronts (which reminds me I got to get Socom 3). Though aside from all that I’d still say they’re good people, or at least they mean well. They’re just misguided…or are they. They also look different. They don’t have that chic city or suburban look and a lot of them are overweight.
The day after we left our brother, we headed up to north South Carolina to Rock Hill. We stayed at some friends of our parents who moved there about 2 years ago (maybe 1 year). It’s strange that they have been in this country less than my parents and already have a nice home in the suburbs, but that’s another story. While up there we took a walk around town, it was boring. The day after before heading back to the airport, we took a trip to Winthrop University. Man it is just too weird, comparing it to SVA in New York, or even Montclair State in New Jersey. Everyone is properly dressed and clean cut. I did think I saw a girl with ripped jeans around the art building, but that was it. Oh, and of course the campus itself was proper and clean cut, it has its own golf course.
Another thing that I noticed how scarce houses were. There were a lot more trees than up here. Which made me thing of the whole conservative vs. liberal on the environment thing. Liberals are for conservation, while conservatives want to log and develop. I think it’s one of those things where people want what they don’t have. Liberals in the city want nature and people surrounded by nature want a city. But then…conservatives don’t like cities. I don’t know. Whenever I go away, to Florida (I don’t count that as south), Vegas, Colombia, or Amsterdam I feel sad when I come back to Dirty Jersey. By the way, despite what the rappers say I didn’t find the south to be all that dirty at least not compared to Jersey and New York. Anyway I liked being back here. In fact it bought a smile to my face when I was leaving the Newark airport and saw a sticker on the ticket machine saying, “Christianity is a Hoax”. Becoming a conservative when I get older is going to suck.