An excerpt from "Escape from Redneckistan!"

...I had taken to calling this liberation my long awaited escape from Redneckistan. Of course there was no such place called Redneckistan, certainly nowhere  near those other stans: Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan Nor was it anywhere close to the Redneck trailer parks or tractor pulls associated with life in the deep South. 

No, Redneckistan is a state of mind, an open-border community of close-minded individuals who lived in virtually every neighborhood in the U.S.  The folks who sought to deport anyone who did not think or act like they did. They were the people I grew up with who forced people into closets, who belittled and demonized those of us who were, or felt different, just to promote their own inadequate feelings of self worth.  Oftentimes they joined groups that went by such seemingly righteous names like the “Moral” Majority or Pro-Family anything; all code words for intolerance and indifference to people like me who were just trying to get by in a very confusing world.

Escaping from Redneckistan meant finally finding a sense of acceptance about the person you are, taking the power away from those who might hurt you...