TENNESSEE STATE SENATOR: If you’re going on about multiculturalism, then respect our damn culture.

Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, strongly objected to the bill and chided colleagues over outsiders moving into the state who are critical of state traditions.

Citing the book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America,” which examines geographical cultural differences, Niceley noted Tennessee is a part of “Greater Appalachia.”

“Now, it’s the 21st Century and we have a lot of that multi-culturalism. That’s all we hear — multi-culturalism. ‘Oh that culture, oh, they’re a little different. They have strange, weird, obnoxious, scary habits,” Niceley said. “But that’s their culture. So we got to respect that culture.”

But Niceley said, “it bothers me when people from outside Greater Appalachia move into Greater Appalachia and they don’t respect our culture. I don’t know hardly how to put this so I probably won’t put it. In this age of multi-culturalism, everybody does something different. We’re supposed to look the other way. We’re supposed to tolerate the other culture.

“But,” Niceley said, “I get tired of people moving into Greater Appalachia and not respecting our culture.”

I love him.