The Civil War Part 2: Snow Storm Edition

http://gizmodo.com/why-the-south-fell-apart-in-the-snow-1511566912

This week, weather has caused some issues across the country. The North has been dealing with sub zero temperatures, snow, and freezing winds. Meanwhile in the South, they have been dealing with two inches of snow, freezing weather.

Up North, two inches of snow is no problem. Northerners see snow every winter, they are more than used to it, and they are prepared for it. Northern states are often stocked and ready to go at a moment’s notice with salt trucks and snow plows. Citizens have heavy winter coats, four wheel drive vehicles, snow tires, snow brushes, shovels, and anything else they may need for the cold and snow. Down south though, now that a different story.

Southerners see snow just as much as the people who live up North do. The difference is they see it on the news or in the movies, not out their office windows at one o’clock in the afternoon. When Southern states are predicting snow, they shut down; they don’t have the necessary tools they need to keep the roads clean and safe to drive on.

In Birmingham Alabama, the weather services predicted snow so you would assume they would have shut down for the day like they do when snow is predicted. The thing was, they only predicted a “dusting” of snow; not thinking it would stick and build up. Everyone went about their day as they normally did, just in freezing temperatures of course, and didn’t think much of the snow “dusting”. That was until adults were at work, kids were at school and they looked out their windows and saw the snow sticking. Everyone decided it was time to head home or get the kids from school so they wouldn’t be stranded, that was a mistake.

Traffic jams built up and got to a point in which they couldn’t be un-jammed. Be it a car accident or just a buildup of too many cars trying to get to the same place, traffic was at a standstill. Buses couldn’t reach schools to bring kids home and parents struggled to make it home from work. Some people just left their cars walked four miles because they couldn’t get anywhere. When people from up North heard this news and saw the pictures of the traffic jams, they laughed it off and poked fun at Southerners. Some people didn’t appreciate that very much.

Brian Barrett, a writer for Gizmodo, wrote a blog post in regards to the ridicule the South was getting from the North. Barrett states that people from up North don’t understand that the South doesn’t deal with snow and when they do it’s not very often. So the South knows to shut down for the time being. He says “It's because the city does not have the infrastructure in place to handle snow, and is self-aware enough to realize it. If you don't know how to swim, just stay out of the pool. Easy.” He hits the nail on the head, the South knows how to handle snow and the way they do it is to not deal with it and ride it out.

But people from the North can’t understand it because they are too busy mocking Southerners for not being prepared. They think it’s funny because where they live, two inches is nothing! To that, Barrett says “It's fine if that's how you want to process what happened yesterday and today. But if you do, you are wrong, and you are an asshole.”

This article made me laugh but at the same time opened my eyes as to why they shut down. It made me feel a little bad that I was one of those Northerners making fun of them. I read what Barrett wrote about why they shut down and it seems so obvious I don’t even know why us Northerners even waste our time making fun of them. I know I say that know but no matter what I think we will always just find it amusing when the Southern states “freeze up” when they see snow outside solely because it’s a natural occurrence up here.