No Jumping Through Hoops!

I started All the Biscuits in Georgia a few years ago as an effort to celebrate and protect Southern Culture. I chose the metaphoric name to communicate my intention to cover a broad collection of topics. Whether I'm covering a serious topic, eavesdropping while Janeal converses over a breakfast of french fries with ranch, or following Uriah as he investigates the mysteries of Timbuktu, the goal is to celebrate and protect Southern culture. This week I'm going to hit on a couple of points that may seem unrelated but each directly affects our culture.

Let's start with our peach deprived cousins to  our immediate west. Bless their hearts. Dateline, Montgomery: Governor Robert J. Bentley (not a Jacksonville State grad) has asserted that he will raise taxes, even if it takes 10 legislative sessions. I don't typically delve into the politics of other states unless it's something galacticly stupid. So I'll gladly delve into this. The South has prided itself on low taxes since Methuselah was knee-high to a grasshopper. We understand that higher taxes stifle growth and create lag in the economy. Besides, our mamas taught us that stealing is wrong. So we keep it to a minimum. We're talking about a Republican governor from small town Alabama who campaigned with a promise of no new taxes. Sound familiar?

Now, back to the Peach State. Atlanta, Georgia. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." We must be cautious. Under the Gold Dome, House speaker David Ralston and the House Judiciary Committee are pushing a proposal that would exempt businesses from the Religious Restoration Act. This would force privately held businesses like Hobby Lobby & Georgia's own Chic-fil-A to be subject to the portions of Obamacare that violate their constitutional religious freedom. Again, these are Republicans, the lever-flip party in Georgia.

This is why we should vote for candidates, not parties.

But an even more troublesome violation has surfaced in the Classic City. The state's flagship public university, in its infinite wisdom, has taken action in the University of Oklahoma SAE fraternity controversy. The University of Georgia has decided that the best way to react to drunk racist frat boys at another school, in another state, 924 miles away is to forbid UGA sorority girls to wear hoop skirts to annual social functions held to commemorate the history of The South. Sounds completely plausible. Because, when you think about it, any time you see a pretty Southern Belle in a hoop skirt, your first thoughts are racial slurs and references to the lynching of black people. It is hard to believe that college educated people selected to operate one of the premiere southern public universities could be this ignorant.

The biggest problem we are facing here is that our own people are attacking our culture. Our own officials are trying to raise our taxes, force individuals to use their own businesses for purposes that are not congruent with their deeply held personal beliefs. And now, the people entrusted to educate our children have determined that girls wearing hoop skirts are the equivalent of Ku Klux Klan members preparing to hold a lynching.

I'm not one to get offended easily. In fact, I usually roll my eyes anytime I hear someone complain about being offended by the "insensitive thing of the week". But this action by UGA is  culturally insensitive. It is likening historic attire It is removing a long-practiced tradition of celebrating Southern History that, in itself, is absolutely incapable of offending a reasonable human being. It is a violation of the sorority members' constitutional right of free expression. It is preemptively punishing UGA students for what a handful of OU students did. It is shameful, it is wrong, and, as a Georgian, it is embarrassing.

With that, I'll close. But I'll close with a plea to my readers. Don't ever vote party line, for any party. Keep an eye on what the nitwits do when we send them to Atlanta, or wherever else they may roam. And stand up for your heritage, regardless of what that might be. Where you came from matters, fight for it.