My recent travels through the deep south of this fine country of ours opened my eyes once again. For my purposes the Deep South wouldn’t include South Florida. It seems to begin around Ocala, Florida as you travel north. Then one is deep into the culture of the Deep South through the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and a big part of Texas. The folks you meet along the way are, for the most part, about as friendly and helpful as you can find, and seemingly genuine. They aren’t superficial like inhabitants of the Great Northwest, they aren’t self absorbed and angry like New Yorkers. Most of them are not transplants like the populations of many cities. I’ve never met a resident of Miami who was born and raised there, except some second generation Cubanos. Transplants typically bring their own culture and are slow to adopt the culture of their new place of residence.
A large part of the population of the Deep South has been born, raised and never strayed from their locale. I talked to adults who had never been across a state line thirty miles down the highway. Others had never heard of cities at the other end of their own state. You have to figure these folks haven’t been exposed to much in the way of outside ideas. They do watch TV and it seems listen to a lot of radio. I was exposed to their radio programming as I drove through the Deep South. One morning Rush Limbaugh was on four stations at once and another four stations were broadcasting religious programming (I don’t mean church services or music). I’m talking political diatribes similar to Rush. This mode of communication or dare I say education seems to be part of the Deep South culture.
These radio stations, from my perspective, promote ultra-conservative and extreme right views. Fine with me except they dominate the air waves and on a 10 hour drive I can’t find any decent music. Admittedly, I have another issue with the phenomenon. It is always presented as a rant, as a diatribe, as an attack on one liberal or another. The material is presented as if the character on the radio has exclusive access to the truth. Furthermore it is his or her obligation and right to scream at the listener about the subject matter they are preaching on this particular day. I notice two approaches as they carry on loudly: They talk as if the know the facts, as if they have the proof of what they are saying but they don’t bother sharing it with the listeners. And when they do attempt to provide proof it is usually a snippet taken out of context. It might be from some obscure document or newspaper article or perhaps the bible. The message is, “just listen to me and believe. Don’t worry about the details or proof.”
So I drove through the Deep South getting more and more claustophobic. Driving mile after mile on the interstate, feeling separated from the world by a wall of green. Yes, tall green trees. Granted they are beautiful and I’m the first to enjoy nature. But it goes on and on and that’s all you see for miles on end. I got so curious what this wall of green was hiding. Does anyone live out there to listen to these radio stations? The consistent barrage from the radio stations that never seems to change helped promote my claustophobia as well. I was much relieved to reach the desert lands of New Mexico and Arizona with the classic rock stations of university towns like Albuquerque and Flagstaff.
I recognize this post reflects some of my biases. I own them. They are mine.
Stan the Man
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