Among other stops I have made this morning, I experienced the wonder that is IKEA in my search for decently-priced furniture. That's all I'll say about that. Thankfully, though, I've learned that all of my packages have made it across the country in one piece thanks to UPS, so all of my belongings are in one place. Honestly, that's the one big fear I have about traveling -- that my belongings won't make it with me. I've never really been scared of flying, I'm just scared that my luggage won't make it with me.

So Cate got a little upset at my "bashing of Christian Southerners," as she put it. And, of course, there's a rebuttal involved on my end of things.

Cate believes that tolerance does exist in the South, except that people like me perpetuate the bashing with "snap judgments." Personally, I believe that in most cases, there wouldn't be a stereotype if there weren't the characteristics there to generalize in the first place. However, if Cate wants examples of what I see to be lack of tolerance in the South, I'm more than happy to provide them.

While I firmly believe that yes, Southern hospitality does exist and there are a good number of people down in the so-called "Bible Belt" who are extremely generous, that doesn't preclude the fact that tolerance may not go hand in hand with generosity. For example, let's take that whole slavery/racial discrimination issue. Even until recently (and probably still going on, though I wouldn't experience it as a white male), racial discrimination has been a powerful force in the South. It is a constant thorn in the side to blacks/African-Americans who had to ride at the back of the bus, give up their seats to white people, endure beatings, have crosses burned on their lawns, have their houses and churches burned down by arsonists, be the targets of lynchings and riots, and generally be treated as second-class citizens who need to patronize their own shops and use separate bathrooms and separate restaurants and go to separate schools because white people didn't want them around. Doesn't sound very tolerant to me, does it to you? Does it sound tolerant when a Southern governor says he'd rather shut a school down than desegregate it, forcing the National Guard to come in to maintain order? Yes, this happened a few decades ago, but let me tell you -- the wounds are still fairly fresh and big gashes in society like these do not heal completely in 20 or 30 years.

To accentuate this problem, most states in the South have renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Day as Lee-Jackson-King Day, commemorating General Robert E. Lee and General "Stonewall" Jackson -- men who fought as generals in the Confederate army, and need I remind you that the Confederates attempted to split from the United States on different platforms but one of the main points was slavery? -- alongside a man who was fighting for the opposite of what Lee and Jackson fought for. Doesn't this seem a little insulting to the memory of Martin Luther King that his holiday would be desecrated by having to share it with men who shed blood in the fight for slavery, while he preached peace and equal rights? Even in Tennessee, the state where King was killed, they have renamed the holiday.

In addition, there was a fight in South Carolina last year regarding the state's Congressional decision to fly the Confederate flag on their state Capitol building. Again, a symbol of a country and a fight that was partially based on the notion of allowing slavery is being flown on South Carolina's Capitol building -- as if to remind all their residents that they fought for and condoned (and by their continuing to fly that flag, probably still do condone) racially discriminatory practices. To a Jewish person, that would be tantamount to flying a Nazi swastika flag. To a Revolutionary War-era patriot fighting for the freedom of the United States, that would be tantamount to flying a British flag. To put it mildly, that flag is out of place and, of all places, should not be flown on a state Capitol building, especially if this supposed Age of Tolerance is blossoming in the South. That's not tolerance, that's an insult to every black person whose ancestors fought to be free.

But Cate's protest was against my "bashing" Christian Southerners, not just Southerners in general. Fine, let's talk about the Christian Southerners. Let's talk about why there's not a thriving Jewish population in the South because the Christian Southerners either made them feel so unwelcome that they moved out, or burned crosses on their lawns too, or posted signs in their stores that right underneath "No Blacks" also said "No Jews." Let's talk about how uncomfortable I felt watching TV in the South and seeing commercials for politicians proclaiming their love for Jesus and how their following him makes them decent people and therefore electable. Politicians! Politicians who are supposed to be regulating the separation between church and state, not totally disregarding it. Let's talk about all the court battles (including the famous Scopes trial) because schools in the South outlawed teaching the theory of evolution and instead wanted to impose on teachers the need to teach Creationism based on pressure from Christian groups and Christian parents -- a battle that is still going on today. Let's talk about how rabid Christian pro-life protesters have terrorized abortion clinics and doctors because of their beliefs which they claim to hold in the name of God and Jesus, yet I don't see any pro-choice advocates taking the radical and destructive and sometimes murderous tactics that their opponents perpetrate. Burning down buildings, throwing rocks through windows, yelling and screaming at people, making death threats against doctors... this doesn't sound very tolerant to me. Let's talk about the people who support people like Pat Robertson and the Reverend Jerry Falwell and groups like the Christian Coalition, who came out and said that the events of September 11th were the result of America's tolerant behavior towards homosexuality and other "aberrant" behaviors, since these groups have their largest membership bases in the South and Midwest.

Life is not a Disney movie or an ABC after-school special where the bullies learn by the end of the hour and a half that it's not right to discriminate and end up defending their black/Jewish/non-Christian/non-mainstream friends and bringing enlightenment to the whole community. Ask all those people who died or who lost their homes or businesses whether they think those actions taken against them were based in tolerance.