Comfort culture, like comfort food,  satisfies. Blue Ridge Traditions magazine offers articles that bring a smile, that educate and sometimes even inspire the reader. The best possible words, styles, and variety of features are assembled and combined as carefully as the perfect ingredients for a recipe, whether that recipe be an heirloom passed down through the generations or something contemporary. 
 
BRT respects that different groups of native English-speakers within the larger culture itself speak and write in their own, often charming, rural or ethnic dialects, yet we refuse to stand by in silence while a fashionably dumbed-down, “deliberate illiteracy” is increasingly heralded as acceptable. Be comforted by our effort to change this trend.
 
We are proud to be part of a cultural backlash, like the teenager who recently petitioned the American fashion world for more appropriate attire instead of sloppy, skin-baring apparel; like Bill Cosby who has stood up and challenged substandard speech, vocabulary, and communication; and like some schools that have removed the junk candy and pop machines from their corridors and replaced them with healthful, nutritious foods for the students. We say, “Let’s take back the culture!” Be proud of our heritage, our country, American English---which happens to have the world’s largest vocabulary. Be comforted. We can contribute excellence. Help us.
 
If you would like to help in new ways, contact us about buying boxes of BRT to give to hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and other places where our magazine could entertain, educate, and inspire. Volunteer for literacy programs for adults and use BRT as a textbook. Help a youngster write well. Read BRT stories to your grandchildren. Write us letters. Ask how to become a sponsor of a page, an article, or a series. Comfort others with knowledge. Point out our new BRT billboard on Route 220 Near Rocky Mount!
 
Right now, fix a pitcher of summery lemonade and settle back in a rocker. Read about horsehoes, horses, and cavalry in the features about a farrier [Mushko] and Virginia’s 2nd Cavalry [Bryan]. Breathe in the fresh mountain air and taste the blackberries and lemon drops in the stories about a watercolor artist [Massie], picking blackberries [Philpott], and a Franklin County child’s visits to her grandma [Brown].
 
Remember the victories, the losses, and the valor of Virginians in the feature about the Civil War [M.W. Bryan], life on the homefront in Roanoke during WWII [B.R. Bryan], and my book review of Jim Morrison’s brand-new WWII masterpiece, “Bedford Goes to War.” BRT is written and assembled a mere 45 minutes from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. Remember in this 60th Anniversary year of D-Day, that freedom and excellence must be preserved.
 
May this magazine bring the best of our culture into your hearts. Now go bake that blackberry jam cake! Get comfy! The next BRT appears in October. 

Ibby Greer

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