I'm not sure I can be as good as Anthony at linking the current issue
with things rhetorical, but I hear in his wish for a "maybe" option
something that echoes my unease. We have just been summoned to join
our president downtown tomorrow at a No rally called by the mayor of
Halifax. I'm note sure I'm going to go. My unease is arises I
think, from trying to see how such rallies might appear from inside
Quebec, where I once lived, and indeed spent very important years. I
fear it will look like the rest of Canada ganging up; I fear it will
evoke massive cynicism -- sure, you want us to stay, but what will
you about it besides rally once in a (very long) while. What are
these rallies except vocal expressions of (a) a commitment to the
status quo, (b) a lack of imagination, (c) a failure to empathize
or understand, (d) a show of numbers, (e) a expression of maudline
sentitment, (f) all of the above?
When I went to class today, my students were talking about the
referendum. One said, "we were wondering whether we should sing Oh
Canada before class". I told them, sure, we'd sing Oh Canada, if
they could and would sing it in French.
Well, they weren't very serious anyway. But I said, if they couldn't
sing their national anthem in the second official language of their
country, then perhaps it was a little late to be trying to speak on
behalf of a united country.
We went quickly on the Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "The Cry of the
Children."
Vive le Quebec, et vive le Canada
Susan
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Susan Drain 902 457 6220
Chair, English Department FAX 445 3960
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, NS B3M 2J6 [log in to unmask]
Canada
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