Though Americans move frequently compared to citizens of many other nations, the United States still maintains regional differences. For many of us, how fellow Americans live in another region may seem vastly different, even perhaps strange.
I have moved about the country probably a bit more than most Americans, even though we are called a nation of movers. In the beginning, I lived with my family in the same house in Nashville, Tennessee, until I went off to college in Birmingham, Alabama.
After college, I began moving around: first within my native state of Tennessee, then a big change to the northeast—rural New Jersey. Later, Indiana, then California, then back to Nashville, then to a couple of places in Georgia.
After that, I joined the Foreign Service of the U.S. State Department and the changes were even further out of familiar territory. Washington, D.C., of course, for training. Then to different countries: Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Canada.
After the Foreign Service, my husband and I retired to his boyhood home on an island up from Seattle.
Even here, I still feel a little out of it—my accent, for one thing, nails me as soon as I open my mouth. After years of moving around, I never lost that accent.
So, yes, even though I’ve moved around more than most Americans, even in a nation with a lot of movers, I still see America’s distinct regions, remaining through generations.
The differences still exist between the Midwest and the South and the east coast and the Pacific region and New England—and all the others in between.
We remain, in some ways, sectional Americans. That is not a bad thing in itself, perhaps even a blessing. It gives us different perspectives and spices our national story, especially as the story is being added to by even more varieties of people.
It does require what has brought America, sometimes badly, but has brought us through all these centuries. That requirement is a tolerance for often very different views of looking at the country and sometimes with different goals in mind.
What is required and has to be prevalent in order for the country to work, is tolerance. We have to be willing to let others win when they have the votes. And we have to abide by those votes and guard with a vengeance any who would attempt to overcome the votes with false counts or narratives. In court case after court case, the past election has been ruled legitimate.
When you don’t have the votes to win, then have enough love of country to yield to those who do. When the other side wins, have the patriotism and love of America to become the loyal opposition—with emphasis on loyal.