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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 ********************************************************************** Susan Drain 902 457 6220 Chair, English Department FAX 445 3960 Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax, NS B3M 2J6 [log in to unmask] Canada **********************************************************************