 The only way forward is small. Those words might seem an odd contradiction in a world that seems to be growing ever larger. The Internet sprawls across the globe connecting tiny villages in rural India to mighty skyscrapers in New York City and everywhere in between. Populations are bursting at the seams. Homes are larger. Big box stores loom and crowd out mom-and-pop shops in the world we know. Corporations like Black Rock gobble up the globe with increasing speed, and it seems we are on a lightening-fast path to bigger, bigger, bigger - one huge united globe. One large undefinable mass. Our news has expanded too. Gone are the days when you would sip your coffee over a few local articles in the newspaper. We hardly even gossip about our neighbours anymore. Now we check our social media and become delighted or outraged at things happening all across the globe. But all of this is ultimately an illusion. It’s a modern day Tower of Babel with classic Tower of Babel results. When Louis and Clark explored the West they would often have to pass through five or more translators to reach an Indian who spoke French and then a Frenchman who spoke English. Anyone who has been to Walmart lately can relate to this. No one speaks the same language. Yet unlike those Indian tribes Louis and Clark encountered, who were totally independent and interacted with other tribes mostly for either trade or war, we must somehow navigate this huge confederation of countries living in our backyard and on our tiny screens daily. Suddenly, election results in New York don’t feel so far away. If China manufactures all our antibiotics, I suppose we are forced to care about what’s happening in China. It’s all connected. We are living in the Tower. We are consumed by it. But the Tower of Babel didn’t last and neither will its current incarnation - because no matter how advanced humans become, we simply cannot out-pace God. The Tower will come down. The answer to the question of when or how or where is a mystery to us, but its ultimate collapse is assured. Terrific! We didn’t want it anyway. In fact, I hear you ask, "Can I do anything to give that collapsing devil-tower a push?" Yes. Simply remember who you are. Remember who God created you to be. He created you to be part of a family. “Nation” comes from the root “natal” meaning to give birth. Many of us don’t feel like birth-buddies with a Somali living in Minnesota or a Sikh living in London. We don’t share common values, histories or future goals. "But my family is awful!" I hear some of you say. "I have nothing in common with them either. They don’t share my values, history or goals. I hardly see them." Sadly, in the Tower where everyone speaks a different language, this is the reality we confront. The consuming mass of chaos resides in our own flesh and blood. So where is your family of common values? Your nation? May I propose it is to be found in your parish or church. Long ago in the Southern United States, we had things called plantations. They functioned like small, self-sufficient towns. The owner and his family lived in the main house. Workers (yes, and slaves) had their own homes and small communities dotted around the acreage. The plantation grew its own food, produced its own wool and cotton for clothing, typically had a cash crop and yes, it had a parish. Everyone would gather on Sunday mornings. Perhaps several nearby plantations would share a central parish. A priest, reverend or preacher would be hired for the parish or perhaps would travel among several parishes in the area. People attending these churches knew exactly who they were and what they were working towards. They weren’t just Americans, they were, for example, Virginians or even more specifically residents of the King plantation, and naturally, the parish found there. For generations they lived like this. They had a common language, a common history, a shared faith and they shared goals for the future. Perhaps their goals were expanding the cash crop, patching the roofs or opening up more space in the graveyard. This identity and total independence from the outside world was a way of life these people were willing to die for when the North infringed on it. The Confederates were famously outnumbered by the North but never out-fought. Behind the Confederate army lay their homes, their family and their parish. "Okay, but we don’t have plantations anymore," you say. Yes, but we have parishes. We have people we see every week who share our history, our language and our goals. This is where our family is and our focus should be there too. And I don’t mean exclusively our spiritual focus. Our friendships, business endeavours, hiring pool, trade center, and so forth, should exist within the hundred or so people we know in our parish.
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 This legend is linked to a real-life event in the mid-1800s involving Texas Rangers Bigfoot Wallace and John McPeters, and a horse thief named Vidal. After killing Vidal, they decapitated him and tied the headless body to a horse, with the head attached to the saddle. The horse was then released, starting the legend of El Muerto. The ghost of El Muerto is said to ride the roads of South Texas, particularly in Jim Wells, Duval, and Live Oak counties, terrifying those who see him. The legend persisted even after the horse and rider were eventually captured, and Vidal's body was buried. The phantom rider continued to be spotted, leading some to believe that the curse had a life of its own.  What can we, as individuals, do about mass immigration?
We talk about it openly so people know they aren’t alone in their feelings. We normalize hating immigration. We make radical changes to our spending habits. We do not support businesses that hire immigrants and we tell them so. In my area that’s really hard because it means no fast food ever, no Walmart, etc. I have to source our food from local farms and find small businesses to purchase things like birthday gifts. Mostly it means we do without often. To whatever legal extent you can, don’t work with them or serve them. Don’t take their opinions into account at the HOA. Dismiss them entirely. Make it not an advantage to live here. Take up space for Christianity and patriotism online and in real life. Bumper stickers, buttons, pins, leave flyers on windshields. Don’t be afraid to be bold. Push back on corporations and government. Recently, for example, I found out that my favorite American organic grocery service (@AzureStandard) outsourced some jobs to Mexico. I raised hell online and let people know. They lost a lot of customers and potential costumers and were told exactly why. Recently we saw Cracker Barrel do a complete 180 on their remodel because of the outrage. Outrage has power. Get involved in your community in any way you can. Run for school board. Lead a Scout troop. Become a cop. Join ICE. Report people to ICE. Network with other patriots nearby. Picket and protest where you can. Support candidates with your values with your time and money. Door knock. Raise hell. Keep the pressure on until the laws change and we can physically round people up and put them on planes or in jail. Don’t be afraid to go to jail, lose your job or even to die. This is the hardest one, but we have to fight this with literally everything we have. That means you might get shot while innocent, like Charlie Kirk. Stop caring about that. We are in a war.  There are some simple, practical steps you can take to start saving the West, today:
Pray. Be humble and grateful. If you’re able, get married, have children, and teach them your values. Volunteer with a community-building organization such as a church, 4-H, Trail Life, etc. Boycott, as much as you can, the businesses and services contributing to the problem. Learn to live simply. Speak out. We currently have an administration in America that does respond to social media pressure. Add your voice to the choir. Let them know. Support your local candidates willing to change things. Get involved with local politics, the school board, etc. Become proficient at one old fashioned skill. Maybe it’s just growing and drying mint on your apartment balcony. Maybe it’s carving wooden brooms. But do something to build up local food, local tools and local natural medicine supplies. Get a minimum of 30 minutes of sunlight everyday. And read some classic literature while you’re at it. Stop doom-scrolling, and do manual labor - whether for work or around your house. Keep your home clean. (Or in other words, make your bed!) Don’t expect immediate results. We are planting the trees under which our grandchildren will sit. Don’t black pill. We are going to make it!  I was recently asked about the ways that Appalachian culture, with a Scots-Irish foundation, is different from lowland Southern culture, which has a more English foundation with African-American influences. I'd love to share my answer. First, the entire South has a few things in common. Unlike the industrial North that was established to be Puritan and to center around shops, factories and the sale of goods, the South was set up like English and French baronial estates. Most of the South was created to be an all-encompassing, self-sustaining series of micro-communities. There were the Lord and Lady of the manor house, and then the indoor servants, grounds keepers, farm labor, etc. They had their own church onsite, as well as their own school. They produced their own entertainment as well. This led to a very self-sustaining community view in the South, which helped give us our well-known good manners and kindness. We are used to working together, but not needing anyone or anything outside our own community. In contrast, the North needed trade and harsher manners towards others (who were your competitors instead of your community) to sustain their system. Northerners had rules that applied to everyone instead of respecting how individuals choose to run their own materials and time. The culture of each area in the South (the art, music, stories, etc.) were heavily influenced by their founding population: Scot-Irish for the Appalachias, French for the Louisiana area, English for Virginia and coastal Carolinas, Spanish and German in Texas, Spanish and Greek in Florida, etc. Geography played a role too. Most notably, in the Appalachias we did have baronial estates, but we were limited in our amount of flat land. So over the generations, families spread into the hollers and settled in more mountainous areas. This meant we became more clan-like as in Scotland. Small communities formed, mostly closely-linked family groups, living in one holler. So we became more feisty and independent than other folks in the South. Our diet changed to be what we could grow on a mountain side which was mostly corn and apples. Both crops were hard to carry down a mountain so we quickly learned it was easier and made more money to make the corn into moonshine. Selling moonshine made us more anti-authoritarian than the average Southerner. It pitted us against lawmen and drew us closer to our families than average. It also led to us developing car racing as we learning to outrun the law men while trafficking liquor. Our isolation in the Appalachias also meant we were poorer than the average Southerners and we were less dependent on slave labor - and less slaves meant less influence from slave culture. For example; think of how voodoo or rock-and-roll came from Haitian and African traditions in places like Memphis and New Orleans. We didn’t have that. We clung closer to churches, and therefore our music, until only a few decades ago, was primarily hymn-based. We had less material goods and relied more heavily on faith and family. We made our own instruments, our own crafts, and spent a long time becoming master craftsmen. (For example, some of the best furniture ever crafted came out of Southwest Virginia.) This isolation led to a very unique culture which only existed in these mountains.  Sit down here with Granny. I want to honestly share with you why Southern culture is more than just “voting red,” and why outsiders who move here without understanding that are often accused of destroying our way of life. I was born a mere geographical stone’s toss from where my ancestors first settled in this country in 1605. Growing up in both the Southeast as well as the Southwest, I was surrounded by a culture of rebel mascots, Dixie and grits. As an adult I realized the culture I accepted as “normal” was not the culture or values shared by everyone in America, and so my husband and I returned to my birth place to raise our children. Unfortunately, years later, our little slice of paradise was invaded. Post-lockdowns, folks wanted to move somewhere freer that represented their values. However all conservatism is not the same. We can all agree that we don’t want the government shutting down private businesses, but how do you unload a truck? Think I’m joking? I’m not... First came the track housing. It was built, in some cases, where we locals used to throw garbage back in the day. Then, our old farm houses became hipster breweries. Annoying, but not yet encroaching. Then Yankees came for our homeschool groups. Suddenly our social outlets were filled with people telling me my grandmother’s pancake recipe was full of carbs, and turning their nose up at my Orthodox faith because it wasn’t their brand of Yankee Protestant Puritanism. And when I mean turning their nose up I mean total shunning. Over and over again, “What church do you attend?” I name my Orthodox church. They actually turn their back (sometimes in unison!) and stop speaking to me. Excuse me, Jeanie-come-lately, but the oldest church in my hometown is Catholic. My granny lived next door and until very recently you could still hear the Latin mass being sung. Next they destroyed the public pools. Non-locals (of a different race and class from the Puritan homeschoolers) flooded (pun!) our public pool. They thought displaying their bulging bosoms and their gay pride tattoos were appropriate. Their sons started grabbing local girls on the butt to the giggling delight or outright denial of their parents. Our local lake faired no better. We encountered those same characters, as well as drug users and loudly blasted rap music. So we lost that. But hey, they claim to vote for Trump, right? After this was the back biting and rumor mills in social groups. I was totally thrown for a loop! I’m sorry but in the South we either treat everyone politely in public or we plainly state our beef with them, to their face, and then it’s done. We do not hide in the shadows gossiping or plotting. We aren’t trying to “catch” someone in a trap. We are straight forward or polite. We don’t have time for anything in between. Now, you can’t trust anyone. They don’t behave in a way normal to us. Social cohesion is gone. I don’t understand it, but people who move here seem to not always know how the police work. You cannot argue. If they tell you to do something, you have to do it. You cannot talk your way out of it or change their mind. Our police are STRICT. A lot of our Southern media has stories of our thinking about those in charge, but once caught, you must comply fully even if innocent. This one actually breaks my heart because folks accustom to negotiating find themselves in jail because they don’t understand our culture. Finally, I have arrived at how to unload a truck. Yes, there is a correct and chivalrous way to do this! My family used to order all our groceries from Azure Standard. It’s a small farm, organic grocer where you order your goods online and then they are delivered by truck. Everyone in our area shows up at the appointed time and place, once a month, and picks up their boxes. For YEARS this was a quick, simple & SOUTHERN process where I lived. The truck driver unloaded the pallet and the men in the group loaded everyone’s boxes into their cars. But about four years ago, all that changed. Now women and children needed to have an equal opportunity to unload the truck for whatever reason. Now the men wait in a line with people much weaker than them and are expected to watch them struggle. Chivalry is shamed. My husband, who comes from a line of Texas Rangers, can’t stand this not only because it’s incredibly rude but it also changed unloading the truck from a 20 minute job to a two hour long task! So he jumped the line and began quickly unloading the truck properly instead if watching women struggle, only to be chastised! These are all small things but they add up to taking over your whole life. You can’t enjoy school groups, church is a wreck, groceries are a nightmare, swimming requires an hour drive to a local hole the Yanks don’t know about yet. So if you feel like you REALLY need to move to the South PLEASE observe the community around you and respect their history and their way of doing things. You moved here because it’s better and it isn’t better because it’s colored red on the TV news.  Come walk with me a minute while I tell you a story that happened to me just this weekend. An interaction I had highlights the glaring misconceptions people have of the South. We’ll talk a little Southern history too. I was in a social situation recently where a European assumed I didn’t know what crepes are. Or perhaps she may have been trying to explain how crepes are like blinis, a similar Slavic dish. As I’ve sat thinking about this event this week, I’ve thought about the strong presence of French culture in the South, and how it’s awful that the media has convinced the world we are uncultured backwoods hicks.  The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile Alabama is said to be modeled after the 13th century Amiens Cathedral in France. It was dedicated on October 27, 1912 by Cardinal John Murphy. French culture influenced the southern United States in many ways, including language, food, music, and architecture. The most obvious examples are the Cajun French language, food like po-boys and pastries, the French Quarter, Mardi Gras celebrations. Even the legal system in Louisiana is based on the Napoleonic Code, which is rooted in French civil law.  The French Quarter, New Orleans LA But even outside of that, French culture is everywhere here and has been for hundreds of years. A wave of French pioneers came to America, mainly between 1790 and 1793. Besides Louisiana many settled in Savannah and Augusta, Georgia, and in Wilkes County. Some also settled on the barrier islands of Sapelo, Jekyll, and Cumberland. French immigrants, although not as numerous as other groups, helped settle Appalachia. In 1540, the first Immigrants to arrive in Western North Carolina were Europeans. From 1759-1771 the white population of Western North Carolina doubled. Joining the Cherokee were the English, Scots-Irish, Highland Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, German, and French immigrants. The French tradition was present in many Antebellum schools.
 French was also part of the standard education in the Old South Dame schools. In the 18th and 19th centuries, dame schools offered French to wealthy boys and girls. Female academies provided a broad curriculum that included French, writing, arithmetic, and penmanship. Finishing schools for upper-class girls taught French and other subjects to prepare them for polite society. French was considered an important language for polite society and for attracting a good husband. Learning French helped girls develop their conversation skills and quote poetry. Learning French helped girls become well-read and cultivated, which prepared them for their roles as mothers and wives in aristocratic society.  The French Quarter in New Orleans receives over 15 million visitors each year. Many of those being their neighboring Southerners. Because of media stereotypes that Southerners are dumb and uncultured, it’s easy for someone to assume we would be unfamiliar with French foods. Movies such as Talladega Nights specifically portray Southerners as not knowing what crepes are so how can you blame folks for assuming that’s true? Now, obviously, a certain population of the South is unaware of what crepes are and would assume anything French is “g4y.” I’m not claiming those people don’t exist, however it’s unfair to stereotype an entire population based on one small segment especially when high educational standards and refined cultural attitudes have long been part of Southern culture for many of us. |
