Southern Indiana Living magazine is the exclusive publication of the region, offering readers a wide range of coverage on the people, places and events that make our area unlike any other. In SIL readers will find beautiful photography, encouraging s
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Jan/Feb 2015 • 11 A friend atends craft shows in Ohio and wherever. She tells people she is from Southern Indiana. Oh, you're from Evansville? Southern Indiana must be Evans- ville. The University of Southern Indiana is there. North Vernon and South Boston likewise claim membership, not just my friend's Sellersburg, my Jefersonville and everywhere at least from Vincennes to Batesville. This magazine, Southern Indiana Living, defnes it one way while Southern Indiana Pediatric Dentistry, in Bloomington, fgures it something else. Whoever cares to join our Southern Indiana club, well, who can blame them. Wherever Southern Indiana is, it is a lov- able place. It is certainly is plenty good enough for me. I worry too much about my future. But I do not worry about fn- ishing right where I started, right here. I know, I know, I should not say Southern Indiana is beter than Southern Minnesota or Southern Mississippi or Southern Maine or Southern Montana. I have not been within a tank full of any of them. I still choose to believe Southern Indiana is not just beter but best, though. And I do so proudly. I do not have to be right. I just have to feel right. I have my reasons, after all, really good ones. What Southern Indiana does maters, not where Southern Indiana is. Southern Indiana is the reason two new bridges are being built across the Ohio River. Kentucky was not remotely interested in the project, for years and years. But Southern Indiana insisted, pressed on through a million frustrations, won converts in Indianapolis and Wash- ington D.C. and, ultimately, made it so Kentucky had to stop saying no. Southern Indiana is the home both of Papa John Schnater and of the late Col. Harland Sanders. Both hit it big after leav- ing, but their greatness and drive were forged right here. Same goes for some guy named Abraham Lincoln, by the way. He had even bigger, well, fsh to fry. Plus there's Forrest Lucas, another totally down-to-earth type who soars as high as entrepreneurs can. Southern Indiana indeed can be full of surprises. It is not stuck in its ways in every way. There's the young man from Austin, for instance, who won a chance to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. That's right, this wonderful singer is not from Austin, Texas, but Aus- tin, Indiana, now known for more than Morgan Foods and that ungodly junk yard at the city's exit of Interstate 65. There's also the young woman headed of to play college football, after geting a chance to prove herself at Jefer- sonville High School. A gay bar opened recently in New Albany, still another sign that Southern Indiana eventually can realize it is part of the real world. I likewise point out how Southern Indiana acknowledges home- lessness by its reliable support for the always-crowded Haven House shelter in Jefersonville. Southern Indiana increasingly con- fronts its shortcomings, all right. More and beter animal shelters help, like do literacy programs and alternative schools and food pantries and homes for troubled children and addicted adults. None of this would be available if Southern Indi- ana embraced the status quo. Money does not exist to fx every- thing. Thankfully, Southern Indiana is Donald Trump-like rich in kindness. I think of the amazing response to Relay for Life - an annual American Cancer So- ciety fundraiser - especially in Washing- ton County, one of our region's poorest. I love too how some women in Campbells- burg, also in Washington County, cook prety much monthly for the entire com- munity. I hope they do that in Southern Montana. Bit by bit, day by day, Southern Indiana becomes more than Northern Louisville. It lands its own jobs, its own restaurants and shops, its own top-notch health care and wide-ranging higher education. Add all that to the immense natural beauty - the lakes and forests and parks - and Southern Indiana becomes more a regional force and less Louisville's litle brother. One of these days, even Indianapo- lis might look south with respect. Southern Indiana is also those fami- lies in and around Starlight - the Hubers and Koeters and Smiths and probably others - that have built prosperous busi- nesses with incredibly hard work, team- work and perseverance. To say work ethic is dead is to forget about these en- during examples. Southern Indiana continues to have its struggles, like does anywhere. I wish I saw more diversity; I hate to think it is mostly more than happenstance. I count too on the arrival of real breadwinning jobs; no one employed full time should be poor. I also hope rates increase of col- lege graduates, of voters and good can- didates, of devoted servant leaders and of regular churchgoers. I believe in Southern Indiana, though, more than ever. We are more about solutions than problems, more about helping than leting others help. It is a great place, en route to greater. I wel- come one and all to Southern Indiana, wherever it is. • After 25 years, Dale Moss retired as Indiana columnist for The Courier-Journal. He now writes weekly for the News and Tribune. Dale and his wife Jean live in Jeffersonville in a house that has been in his fam- ily since the Civil War. Dale's e-mail is dale. moss@twc.com 'Thankfully, Southern Indiana is Donald Trump- like rich in kindness.' Welcome to Southern Indiana... wherever it is!