Hi to all my cousins, Here is an editorial article that appeared in our local newspaper this morning. I thought you may enjoy reading about the wisdom and thinking of people that live in our region, the region that your ancestors came through and lived for a time before moving on westward. Today this region is known as the "Gateway to the West." Mess with our cousins and get a whuppin' <A HREF="mailto:jmwelch@kingsport.com">By JIM WELCH</A> Let's talk about cousins. Cousins are important to Southerners. They are perhaps more important to us than they are to anyone else anywhere else in the country. This is particularly true of Southerners who centuries ago ventured west of the Appalachians and into the deeper South. With us, our way of life is secondary to our family, for we are quick to place our way of life at risk if our cousins are being messed with. Long ago, the British military establishment determined that one of their strategies for squashing the American colonial rebellion should include their occupation of the Southern colonies. Even though loyalist militias outnumbered rebel militias throughout the South, many of the British troops managed to treat their otherwise hospitable hosts with great indignity. Their indignity was such that many heretofore loyalists and fence straddlers found themselves aiding in discomforting the British occupiers - a fact that caused even more indignant behavior to be cast upon the colonists. The over-the-mountain folks were literally over the mountain. They had gone to get away from life on the other side, but after hearing of the indignities their cousins were suffering at the hands of the British, they took it upon themselves to raise a militia, cross back over into the hills of Carolina and to deliver a serious whuppin' one must assume the Redcoats were obviously begging for. Later, many of our cousins suffered from poor crop prices and headed to the Mexican territory of Texas looking for a better life. The Mexican leader, Gen. Santa Anna, became a bit disgruntled at our cousins' stubbornness in holding onto their American ideals of government. When Santa Anna took it upon himself to use military force in displaying his displeasure, many of the Texicans' cousins from these parts descended upon Texas and delivered a whuppin' that one can only assume Santa Anna begged for. When the states developed distaste for each other, many cousins were caught in the crossfire. It all depended on which cousins got treated the worst, but suffice it to say there were some serious whuppin' events conducted by both sides. It was because we were cousins that we reunited when it was all over. Time and time again, people somewhere in the world have stupidly had it in for our cousins. Sadly for them, our family has grown and grown over the years. We have cousins everywhere of every color of every faith of every nationality. Some of them are even downright weird and the subject of many a moral consternation. We might even be prone to cuss some of them every now and then, but that's okay because they are our cousins. That's family talk. If you're not family, you had best not be critical about our cousins. That "six degrees of separation" to us means that somehow everybody between the Hawaiian Islands to Maine and from Alaska to Puerto Rico is related within six generations. Much could, would, and should be said about the American way of life, but perhaps it should also be said to the yahoos who orchestrated September 11, 2001 that they have done went and messed with our cousins. I promise they did. And I also promise that history will repeat itself. You don't mess with our family unless you're just beggin' for a whuppin'. Like Domino's, we deliver. Jim Welch is a Kingsport resident and a teacher in the city schools. E-mail him at jmwelch@kingsport.com. When the article mentioned those weird cousins, I instantly thought of Randy and all the cousins here on the Kilgore board, hehehehe!!! Until later, good hunting Jerry in Kingsport, TN www.Penjaccphoto.com