Southern Heritage
... find that they were inferior to our culture and our way of life. This section also states that the South has the best sports, but we are too involved in the win-lose part, to realize the true essence of the game. He says that the SEC has some of the best football players, and the most that go on to become Professional football players. The SEC also has some of the best fans in the nation. He says, though, we need to focus more on the meaning of the game and not just beating our biggest rivalries. The third section of this book talks about Southern culture. The biggest part of our culture is the food. Any Yankee cannot taste Northern food and Southern food and honestly say that Northern food is better than ours is. We have some of the best homegrown vegetables and fresh caught seafood. We have the best barbeque, seafood, biscuits, steaks, vegetables, and cooks than in any region of the United States. The third section also talks about the manners of Southern men. Men who live in the South open doors for ladies, give up their seats, and rise when a lady does so. Such manners are not as common in Northern states, so says Reed, or anywhere else in the United States. It does not matter to him if you are his wife, mother, sister, or daughter; he treats each woman with the respect the she deserves. Men are very courteous to every woman that he meets, and they are applauded for such well-rounded behavior. Also, in the third section, there is a mention of southern music. I personally think that this is the best part of the South. We have our own kind of music, with our own kind of style, and I think many people are jealous of that. Some of the most noted country music singers are Hank Williams, Jr., Charlie Daniels, and Merle Haggard. To me, these are my heroes, because I grew up listening to all three of them. I probably know all the words to every Charlie Daniels song. This is my favorite part of the Dixie culture. The fourth section of Whistling Dixie talks about how the South is much different from other regions of this country. Reed speaks about corporal punishment, but in a good view. He says that Mississippi was ranked second, only to Arkansas, for most public-school paddles. In Mississippi, one in 8 kids are paddled each school year, nearly 12.5 percent. On the other hand, Mississippi had the lowest number of “seriously emotionally disturbed children” in the United States. In the fourth section, Reed also talks about religion and the freedom to have your own religion and practice it in public. He says that in many Northern states, there have been bans of praying and preaching in public. We are encouraging it in Dixie, though, there have also been movements to take away the Ten Commandments out of public places, but it has yet to be accomplished. We have many evangelists who speak around the state and many schools pray each morning together. The fifth section of this book speaks of government and politics. John Shelton Reed speaks strongly about raising the legal drinking age to twenty-one. He argues that if someone can enlist in the army and legally vote, he or she should have the right to drink alcohol. The reason that the legal drinking age was changed to twenty-one was to prevent drunken teenagers from killing someone while driving drunk. He states, “I would not care if I was killed by a drunk adolescent or a drunken middle-aged adult; it does not really matter to me.” He is very humorous on this subject, but he feels strongly on this matter. Also,...