Much Ado About Peaches

I think I must have been dropped on my head as a baby because my "community spirit" lobe seems badly damaged. While everyone around me gets wrapped up in extolling the virtues of their city or state, I'm left wondering what all the fuss is about.


For example, when I first moved here to North Carolina, I was bemused to see their license plates read "First in Flight." Really? John Glenn was born here? "Well no," my darling husband had to explain, "it refers to Kitty Hawk." For months I found this a source of amusement. North Carolinians were proud that the Wright brothers-- who were not born here or even designed their plane here-- chose a sandy hill in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to jump off. My daughter wasn't so amused, however, when we forced her to climb "The Hill Of Death" (her name) in the middle of summer. It is.. how shall I put this...a sandy hill. As tourist attractions go, it is somewhere between the grand canyon and the Stuckey's gas station on Highway 50.

My point is, that North Carolinians took a sandy hill that hosted a historic moment and ran with it-- making it a point of state pride. Yah Hoo! First in Flight! Most out-of-staters probably don't even know what that means. But never mind. State license plate mottos are not meant for out-of-staters.

And neither are Official State Thingys. As I have mentioned before, North Carolina's Official State Fruit is the scuppernong grape, but the Official State Blue Fruit is the blueberry, a detail that is funny to me, but serious to blueberry growers. Who else cares? Probably only the child who has to memorize this stuff for a school report.

I bring this up because Alabama just passed a resolution on Tuesday naming The Peach as Alabama's Official State Tree Fruit. Georgia is not amused. Georgia is in fact mad as hell. Georgia declares itself to be known internationally as The Peach State, and anybody who has attempted to navigate the byways of Atlanta knows that every other street is named Peachtree. Peachtree Lane, Court, Circle, Avenue, etc. Georgia takes its peachiness seriously. I expect there will have to be a peach-off.

Meanwhile, there has been no word from South Carolina which also declares the Peach to be the Official State Fruit. Oddly enough, South Carolina actually grows more peaches than Alabama or Georgia, but they choose not to flaunt it. Their license plate says: "Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places" which is better than using their state nickname, "The Palmetto State." Whenever I see the word Palmetto, I automatically think of the Palmetto bug and nobody wants their state to be associated with a large, scary cockroach.

Stranger still, the number one grower of peaches in the United States turns out to be...California. California can't be bothered defending their peach status, because it is too busy with the California-Florida orange wars. California is "The Golden State" but Florida is "The Sunshine State." While sunshine is very enticing to the people living in colder states, I personally think that California should just go ahead and declare themselves "The Bimbo State." Now that's a tourist attraction!

Letters To The Editor-- February 22, 2006

I read The Raleigh News & Observer every morning. As newspapers go it is somewhere between The Los Angeles Times and The Nowheresville Highly Opinionated Weekly. The one feature that I look forward to reading every morning is "The Letters To The Editor" because it is so often a source of naked bigotry, ignorance, and religious zealotry. This morning I read this little gem:

Some of the reasons the liberal elite media despise our vice president are:
1) He is very intelligent.
2) He refuses to worship at their sef-constructed altar.
3) He is amused by their stupid questions.
4) He is effective beyond their collective imagination.
5) He enjoys the full confidence of our president, his colleagues and a majority of the American people.
6) They cannot understand his lack of interest in becoming president.
7) He has a subtle and sophistocated sense of humor surpassing their understanding.
8) He knows his job, and more about government, business, economics and defense matters then they can fathom.
9) He is a patriot.
10) He is a man of faith.

Odd, I never thought of Cheney as a "man of faith." I will say he doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve as so many other politicians do. Perhaps Cheney takes after his boss and is one of those born-again Christians who don't attend church.

Overall that is quite a list and while I could nitpick (#5 is highly questionable) I think that the most revealing are #s 1 and 9. The fact that the letter writer thinks the "liberal, elite media" despises Cheney for being intelligent and patriotic taints the whole list for me.

The word "liberal" means "Not rigorous or literal, open-minded, unprejudiced. Progressive, favoring individual liberty and democratic reform. Generous, open-handed." I suspect that it is the "open-handed" part that has given liberals a bad name. To be liberal is to be open to change-- the very opposite of being a conservative-- and being open to change means welcoming intelligence. Without information how can we change? To state that liberals hate somebody because they are "intelligent" is to completely misunderstand the ideals of liberalism.

But it is the definition of "Patriot" that I have the greatest dificulty with these days. We so often hear it bandied about and lately the idea of who or who is not a patriot seems to have changed mightily. These days the easiest way to be marked as a patriot is to wear a little flag lapel on one's jacket while the quickest way to be marked as a traitor is to speak out against the government, as though the present administration-- not the people or the land or the history or the culture-- is the sole embodiment of America.

I sure wish we could go back to the old definition when to be a patriot didn't mean enriching one's own pockets at the expense of others but meant sacrifice. When serving one's country did not mean earning millions while living a life of power and luxury in Washington D.C. passing legislation that benefits one's friends in big business.

I guess when it comes to the meaning of the word, "Patriot" you can call me a conservative.