WHAT GIVES?

First, here is a Civil War map of the United States.

The red states are, of course, "The South".  And in the American political vocabulary of today, most of the states in the South are red (Republican).

Here is a map of states considered worst in the U.S. for health care...

...and the accompanying article:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/05/1297121/-The-best-and-worst-states-for-health-care?detail=email

Now, take a look at this following map, which shows which states have the highest rates of smoking:

And one for highest rates of child obesity:

Here's one for teen birth rates:

A map of U.S. gun deaths:

And a map of non-payers by state:

Here is a map of educational segregation in the U.S. prior to "Brown v. Board of Education:

How about which states are the most religious?

Estimated percent of population in poverty:

What about levels of high school graduation?

And finally, here is one for incarceration rates:

What gives?

What do you think the reasons are for the South leading America in as many negative categories as it does?

To the South's credit, that region is lower than most other areas of the nation in alcohol consumption and drug use.  Not all the militia groups are in the South; it does have quite a few, but there are many in the Northeast and in the American West.  There also is not really a concentration of Southern states taking federal money, nor is there a concentration of people accessing public assistance.  "Tea Party" adherents are spread around the United States too, not all necessarily in the South.

But it seems the South leads in more negative areas than positive.

Is it time for them to secede, or for the rest of the country to cut them loose?  :-)