by James Glaser
April 12, 2005

Here I am driving down to the South and I am wondering when I will be crossing the Mason Dixon Line, entering into the Bible Belt, or if the State I am in is Red or Blue.

My first hint of the "South" was my first gas stop after Peoria, Illinois, where they had a kerosene pump along with the gas pumps. It seems that down here many people have space heaters for their homes instead of a central furnace. All I could think of is that they have many people being overcome with carbon monoxide. A question to a local doctor confirmed that.

The next thing I noticed was that the number of bars was dwindling, while the number of churches was increasing. Also that first gas stop produced people with a "twang" in their voice, but no "drawl" yet.

The radio started to tell me what part of the country I was in too. At home in Northern Minnesota, there are only five stations that will show when you scan for a new one. Down in Southern Illinois, there was a station at every spot on the dial. Many, many were "Christian" stations, at least I think they were. It was hard to tell because they all seemed to be asking for money to either pass new laws because of Terri Schiavo's death or to fight gay marriage. I tried to listen to several, but never did I hear the Word of God spoken. They were sure fired up though, and they desperately needed that money to "protect" our American way of life.

The farther south I went, the more tall roadside crosses I saw. Many were huge and I would guess they cost tens of thousands of dollars to build and thousands more to maintain. Right near these crosses you could see whole neighborhoods of very substandard housing.

Just for an aside, when crossing into Kentucky from Illinois, you cross the Missouri River and maybe 40 miles inside of Alabama, you cross the Tennessee River. I thought this strange, until I remembered that the Mississippi River flows almost all the way through Minnesota.

I really don't know what I am looking for on this trip, except to try and feel what the rest of the country feels. As I travel I have no idea if the State I am in is Red or Blue. I see just as many pro-war signs down South as I see up North and the same goes for anti-war. One surprise is that down South, there are way fewer anti-abortion billboards and almost no "Choose Life" bumper stickers. I did find that people in the South are way more outgoing than people up north and people are more polite down here. Alabama has had by far the most respectful people, who honestly sound like they are concerned if their service has been all right or if you are really having a good day. People in the South smile more than people back at home do to strangers.

Nobody I talked so far has had any idea of the difference between our nation's yearly deficit spending and the National Debt. Many people have told me that they thought Bush's War in Iraq was fine last year, but now the are having second thoughts and several said there are more letters to the editor to that effect. The key thing in all of my conversations was that no one objected to me calling it "Bush's War."

I am going to continue on with this road trip. Cheapest gas, $2.09 in Birmingham, Alabama. Most expensive, $2.37 in Montgomery, Alabama. Also, I think I actually hit both the South and the Bible Belt, when restaurants started giving me grits without my ordering them. I never did see that Mason Dixon Line.