The Sept. 9 Chronicle included a letter ("Objects to billboard") by Walker Bridwell McWee, which lamented a billboard that features a picture of former President Abraham Lincoln. The writer stated the billboard offends him, "as it would all true Southerners."
You occasionally publish such letters in which the writers generally try to relive the Civil War. But the phrase that caught my eye was "true Southerner."
What is a true Southerner?
Well, I'm a true (white) Southerner. In my childhood years, I lived near the levee bank behind King Mill, and my teen-age years were spent off Meadowbrook Drive. Wherever I've gone, I've always been proud to tell people I was born and raised in Augusta.
A true Southerner doesn't spend his lifetime reliving the Civil War. A true Southerner is thankful to live in the greatest country on Earth. A true Southerner is proud of his heritage but mindful of the indignities the region heaped upon blacks.
A true Southerner doesn't want to go back to the days when cotton was king and blacks were slaves. A true Southerner says "sir" and "ma'am" and treats all people with dignity and respect.
There is no one more noble than a true Southerner. The people who relive the Civil War are not true Southerners. They're filled with hate and live in a small and, fortunately, vanishing world of their own.
If they open their minds and embrace the South of 2002, they can become true Southerners. If not, they can live out their lives in that small world in which no one else is welcome. But really, who would want to go there anyway?
Jim Murrah, Martinez, Ga.
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