The following is an excerpt from Prenshaw & McKee’s “Sense of Place: Mississippi”:
(in fact, the articles combined and bound came from a symposium held at USM on Oct. 5-6, 1978)
“What would happen if our hypothetical tourist could come to an ordinary Southern county with the expectation that he could find a well-written, well-illustrated, honest guide to the county, a handbook that might cost a couple of dollars, and would guide him through the streets of the county seat and the countryside around it, explaining what he is seeing–a book that was strong on truth and context, but light on magnolias and Tupelo honey. I can’t help thinking that the respect for place would be buoyed immeasurably, not only by the visitors, but by local residents who watched those intelligent visitors as they walked the streets of their town with affection and understanding.”
This, my friends, is of paramount importance.
This is one of the central goals of ‘subSIPPI’.
Above all, we need to know about places–and know the truth about them. What we need are dedicated people who are cudgeling their brains to find ways to preserve and instill a sense of pride in local places, a pride based on very specific knowledge of those places, and dedicated to telling the truth about those specific places.
