these things happen when you live in the south

[ms. bing]

my ex-husband's stepfather said this to us when we were discussing the movie "slingblade". at the time we both just raised our eyebrows and gave each other the "ok, crazy redneck" look.
years later, after having been here and left and come back, i finally understand.
in the north (ie. st. louis), if a man beats his wife one night there are neighbors to hear, family nearby to help, and authorities to call who probably don't know the couple personally.
in the south (ie. east and/or central texas), the same scenario can occur in complete isolation and privacy. family may be either far away or indifferent, or more often, have their own problems to deal with, and the "authorities" in small towns often know the couple personally and are unwilling to take drastic measures that would hurt or inconvenience them both. by the next day the rest of the drama can play out, including sincere apologies and attempts to make up for the transgression. according the the scenario, this often fixes things temporarily and allows for the situation to occur again.
the same thing is true for numerous other situations that can be destructive.
these things happen anywhere. i think this is the difference between north and south.
what do you guys think?

[Barbie]

That doesn't seem to be much differnet that here in Canada except we wouldn't say "West vs. East" or "North vs. South" or "White vs. Native." we would say, Suburban vs. Rural. Country fold vs. City folk. Small town vs. Big City.

Though, it's partially true I suppose for North Vs. South as a Canuck looking in to you Americans.

We've been conditioned to you view ya'll that way anyway.

Most of us know better though.

There are some folks and there are other folks.

But we are all just folks.

[Cruise Director]

Any society "collective" is going to treat these kinds of circumstances differently since everyone within the collective are aquanted to some degree. There is a lot of banter here in Utah about how both spousal and child abuse tends to get overlooked within the LDS church and is not always reported to authorities; but instead the problem is dealt with ( or attempted to be ) by Church officials.

[Asmodeus]

The only experience I have with spousal abuse is with my aunt and uncle. He was an alky and beat up my aunt. She turned around and beat him senseless with a baseball bat. He spent three days in the hospital. They are still married. He quit drinking and they have been happy ever since. Course, he has a few dents in his skull still.