Southern Pride

Southern Pride
 
On the evening of July 4th, 2017, I found myself sitting along the Savannah River Front with my family and many others. The colors of independence exploded into the night sky as it mixed with the southern summer heat. It all reflected freedom like a mirror on the Savannah River.
 
You could hear the oohs and ahs as luminaries exploded and set the skyline ablaze. Then I heard one lone voice sing “oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light”. This was quickly followed by more voices singing “what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming”. Voice after voice joined in together til the many sang as one; “oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave”. I glanced at the couple I had befriended while waiting for the fireworks to begin.
 
Tom and his wife, visitors from Ireland, were visibly moved by this outpouring of American Patriotism. It was as the crowd sang “o’er the land of the Free and the home of the brave”, that the hairs on the back of my neck and all along my back stood at attention. I was witnessing something I had never understood before; Southern Pride. It was as old as the south itself and different from any other patriotism I had experience in any part of this great land.
 
It made me proud to be American.
 My family and I will remember that moment when Southern Pride showed itself to us for the rest of our lives. I now know and understand as well as any Northerner could the love the South has for this great country of ours and the land we call home.
God has blessed the south
God had blessed thenorth
God has blessed the west
God has blessed America for she truly is the best!