>>7941763 (PB)

Well, I'm not sure that I follow all of your thinking there, friend.

The way I see things, when you move to an area and wish to be accepted, it's wise to allow for the gradual change in your speech patterns … not to fake it, but to allow the rhythms of the place to take root. Do this while you are learning the other "ways" of the place.

When I moved to NC from Detroit, I spoke "Detroit" and I thought "Detroit". But I also understood that what worked in Detroit would not always work here – but that the folks down here had found solutions that WOULD work here. So, I have gradually learned their ways until now, for the most part, they are MY ways, too.

My wife wasn't black enough to ride the Detroit buses. Here, the folks all know her on the little free shuttle bus that gets people around. That she's African American counts for less here than in the "liberal north."

Northerners and Mexicans have brought a lot of crime with them. Rather than learning our ways, they want to impose their ways. Well, if those ways worked so damned well, why did you move?

I'm a southerner now and I like our ways and I'm defensive of them.

Lemon and his pals are, bless their hearts, idiots.

I'd like to go on a bit longer and hit more details, but the good folks of this town have asked me to take on the job of getting the kids across the main street and it's about time for school to let out.