Posted on 11/17/2004 8:30:09 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
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."
Note to Walter Scott the answer is yes.
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.
Vishwasrao is his name. BTW anybody checked his student visa?
I still need to make those shirts... "Nuke Berkeley - Bomb Ithaca"
ugh!
Feel free to make comments to Harsh personally at his email address: hdv2@cornell.edu
Enjoy!
Here kitty, kitty, kitty.
You can have the blue counties with my blessing. Try anything with the red ones and you'll be doomed to disappointment.
Y'all don't let the door hit you in the @ss on yer way out now; Hear?
"... we're not just the local leftist nuts."
hell, no, they're all over the place, mostly in those ever-so-blue places
WAIT..... you forgot San Franpsycho! and Bizerkly...
*holds the door open*
Northern libs talking about secession again.
Hey, Ithaca is not evil. I have a 12 gauge that is really sweet!
...wish I'd saved that clever image of the North Korean flag as Ithaca emblem.
Great idea!! They could take the UN with them.
they haven't the juevos.
when they go they can take their multi-generational ghettos with them from one Nirvana-in-their-minds to another.
The Ithaca Gun Company has not been located in Ithaca for years.
make a nice 10er too!
1) She has no leadership experience. As the leader of the most powerful nation, she would have nothing to guide her. She is riding on her husband's coattails. She has done nothing of significance as a senator.
2) She is a strong advocate of socialized health care. This is a proven disaster.
3) She is the ultimate divider. She attacks those who do not agree with her with all her powers and then some. Travelgate, Whitewater, Vast Right Wing conspiracy, etc.
4) She is solidly for anti-family measures. It-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child, gay marriage, etc.
5) She supported Arafat.
you're right about them not having the guts.
Besides, this is a settled question now. If any Blue State were ever to secede now, the Red States should march in and take over.
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