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For the past 7 years I have lived in Alabama. The Deep South. Dixie. Home of the 1st Confederate capital city and the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. And, despite the fact that it is part of these United States of America, I am here as a foreigner. The Southern states are a country within a countrya culture within a culture.

For as long as I have been here, I have been trying to fit in. I have tried to learn as much as I could so that this could be achieved, so that I could become one of them'. I know, I know, be your own you! But, that is not as easily done here. A Yankee is looked upon with distain and distrust by so many. Even the editor of the local newspaper has voiced his opinion and proclaimed that all Yankees should go home.

And the usual explanations given to me are so hard to accept. There must be a deeper cultural reason for this separation and difference. I've casually interviewed several Southerners, probing for an answer. All I seem to get from them is that "we're just different." The less enlightened attitude will throw stereotypes at the question. Southerners all wear John Deere caps and love NASCAR. Northerners are all from the city and have no manners. How does this account for all the Southerners who are rude or all the Northerners who love NASCAR and watch it on nationally syndicated television.

Television. There was my first quandary. How can one country, under the same television satellites, not have one unified culture? American culture is everywhere and permeates our homes and businesses. How can there be an isolated culture within a culture? Why couldn't this universal medium help close the gap? Why couldn't I put my finger on it?

I have even tried to investigate this phenomenon via the internet, with no luck. Every search yielded the same stereotypical "surface" information that I had already uncovered. Until recently. I finally stumbled across a site with a study involving a community in Illinois just prior to the Civil War (or the War of Southern Independence, if you prefer.) Unfortunately, I didn't save this site, and I cannot seem to find it againbut I gleaned some very interesting information that could very well lead me to a fuller understanding of the true difference.

So, let me give you some of the points that I have come up with, purely as my own observation as to why the Southern Culture is unique.

1. The most obvious difference of course is LANGUAGE. As soon as I open my mouth around here, people know I am not one of

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