Packing Up (Cornell University students looking to help NY secede to Canada)

ITHACA--The 2004 Presidential election may be decided, but that doesn't mean everyone is pleased.

The divide between the red and the blue states (states were divided by color depending on whether they voted Republican or Democrat) seems to run even deeper than simple political lines. Some Cornell University students are looking to help New York secede from the Union.

"After the election we were all sitting around commiserating in the office and conversation turned to this divide between the red and blue states," said Harsh Vishwasrao, a graduate student in the applied and engineering physics department at Cornell University.

Vishwasrao says the ideas to create a flag contest for a new United States of Canada and to write a letter of secession to Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada, about their plan were the brainchild of post-doctoral students Rebecca Williams and Liz Rhoades.

The students are currently working on a draft of their letter to Martin and plan to include a copy of the winning flag from the contest.

There is no criteria for the flags other than that the blue states join Canada and the red states remain on their own.

"There is a flag with a Smurf holding the Canadian maple leaf," Vishwasrao said. "Some flags are serious, some are whimsical."

Passersby simply put a checkmark on the bulletin board to indicate their choice judge the flags, and judging follows an honor code.

"We hold an honor code that you only vote once, which didn't hold in our election, but we hope will hold in our flag selection," Vishwasrao said, adding that judging seems to be wrapping up this week.

He added that there is no formal statement that the group is trying to make. The whole contest originated from a casual observation of the division of the United States in terms of politics.

"The thing that was really interesting," Vishwasrao said, "was that after this came about I was talking to a friend on the Internet who was sitting in an office in Seattle who said, 'We had the same idea over here.' So we're not just the local leftist nuts."

Vishwasrao stresses that the division of the Democrat and Republican states has been present "since the Civil War" and is not something new over the past two presidential elections.

"The blue states have more in common with the political ideology of Canada than we do with the red states. Make of that what you will," he said. "It's not treason or anything; we're not saying it's a serious course of action."

I wouldn't ask to be called anything more than rational. Thank you for your civility.

You are very welcome. Polite discourse and debate is something that I enjoy.

So lets talk about this secession idea. As a general audience, you all seem to actually be pretty open to the idea. Really, whats so crazy about it?

Personally I don't see anything "crazy" about it at all. I am a Southerner whose family fought for secession from the crown of England and later from the Union which they believed had broken their contract (ie Constitution) with them. I am in full support of the right of a state to secede from the Union whenever they feel it necessary to remake the government. I think the Union is just as, if not more, fractured and in need of a divorce.

Let me clarify something to those who accuse us of "hating America" or being unpatriotic. We love this land. We wish to see it prosper and thrive, but we have a different philosophy about how to go about that.

I don't believe your side to be unpatriotic any more than I believe my ancestors were unpatriotic to the throne or the Union. I do, however, believe that the perception is the majority of the "blues" do hate the "reds", the Union as it is, bible belt morality, traditional family values, holding to the founding principles of the Constitution and the belief in limited government, definition of marriage, military service, etc. This belief of mine comes from the myriad of editorials and news show quotes that I have read and from the average "blue" I have spoken to.

So, as it stands right now, you don't want us, and we don't want you. So why are we making each other miserable and bickering like small children? Lets go our separate ways. Done right, this is a mutually advantageous course of action.

I agree 110%. Maybe you need to start a PAC that calls for convention and elects delegates to vote to deratify the Constitution for your state.

There would, of course, be several obstacles to acomplishing this. We would have to ensure that Blue America had adequate agricultural production and Red America had enough access to ports and the water table. But we can figure it out.

Yes but you also need to figure out how you are going to get citizens of red states who have been slandered for so long to not place enourmous tarriffs on exports such as power, food, fuel, etc. And I don't think that port access would be a problem along the Southeastern Atlantic seaboard or in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, are you prepared for the amount of businesses who will be leaving once the tax rates are hiked to the point where they believe that it is no longer feasible to do business there? It wouldn't be uncommon. This is one of the main reasons manufacturing companies left the North to begin with.

Just so you know, this is not the first time the NE states have threatened to secede. It was not originally a Southern idea.

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