Now imagine that some next president proclaims that feeling any degree of “Southern pride” is disloyal to the remaining United States – that doesn’t entirely follow much of a reason or logic, but just imagine that type of a paradox. Cotton fields, tobacco, magnolias, tree lined streets of Savannah – all gone, and all unpatriotic. Another important element to be added to the forthcoming comparison is this: Georgia has been on the modern maps only about 300 years, while this other state that I will compare to Georgia has been on the modern and ancient maps over 2000 years – that much more in rooted mythology, ancient tales, inborn pride, plums and apples instead of peaches. The terror I am going to refer to was equally brutal and implemented with vigor only in the past century.

Think I’m kidding?

Not. I was born in Belgrade, Serbia. In spite of what my parents (and more importantly – grandparents) taught to me, I was encouraged not to say any of it openly – ever. Why? Because Serbia was a part of Tito’s communist Yugoslavia and anybody mentioning his/her “Serbianism” – was considered tantamount to high treason, if not being unpatriotic and disloyal to the remaining states of that shaky union. After 50 years of such brutal suppression, comes some other character (twisted in some other unpredictable ways) and proclaims: “There is pride in being Serbian”. To make things more complicated – that one gets elected president and starts to defend Serbian heritage, Serbian language, Serbian mythology, etc. So we were proud of our hills and valleys, rivers, plum trees, apple blossoms, sunflowers, cotton and tobacco didn’t grow there much but we had our own flora and fauna – not allowed to brag, boast or mention it much as that too was deemed “unpatriotic” and “treasonous”. Go figure.

The town of my birth has been around for some 3,000 years, first populated by the Celtic tribes known as Scords or Scordiacs, they named the settlement Singidunum. During Roman times the name remained unchanged and only after the Slavic tribes arrived they renamed it into Beo-grad (white-town) Belgrade, the name it has to this day. To ignore a few thousand years old traditions, mythology, flowers, costumes and history was next to impossible – yet we did it.

Iliya Pavlovich PhD