To Anne-Marie my sincerest thanks for calling attention to the extremist flavor of some of the recent postings. Xenophobia is anything but "humbug," manifested as a Kirkwall boy being physically attacked as an outsider by local boys in a Stromness school yard (a story my dearest Peggy told me earlier tonight), or in some global conflict. If you wring every drop of meaning out of the Greek roots, "xenophobia" means something like fear or hatred of a guest, a great sin both to the Greeks and to our other cultural ancestors, the Hebrews. As descendants of Abraham, in one sense or another, each of us is a "stranger in a strange land" with the duty to treat the neighbor, the stranger, the foreigner, the guest in our midst with respect and love, and the right to expect such treatment from others. Something Stephen Davie wrote a few days ago struck a responsive chord with me, about how his grandmother had passed on to him that his awareness of the importance of his Scottish and Orcadian heritage would increase as years go by. I too was given by my grandparents a healthy dose of the spirit of Scotland (which, in spite of Grumpy's eloquence, is far from "long-forgotten"), which they and their siblings helped spread to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well as Canada and the United States. Scotland has contributed to the arts, letters and sciences enormously out of proportion to its population, and the desire for freedom from centralized authority is part of that great legacy. Grumpy mentioned three of his heroes, Wallace, King and Mandela, and we could doubtless come up with a few others, heroes of mine, too, and of all who love freedom. Blair and Bush, just to choose two modern "leaders" at random, seem like political hacks to me and will only become legendary if the threshhold for greatness drops considerably, but part of adulthood is making the best of a bad situation. My Scotchness is bristly enough that the idea of an independent Scotland appeals to me, partly because a Hanoverian is still a Hanoverian, regardless of how many times they changed their last name. Ultimately my opinion on the matter means nothing, of course, since the best thing I can hope to do by voting is to chase the Republicans out of office here in the States. Whether the Act of Union survives the ballot box or not, the same situation of sharing that big island with the nation to the south will still exist. Is there a consensus among the independence party as to whether the nation would be a monarchy or a republic? In spite of the fact that the definition of "plutocracy" is "rule by a small class of rich men," we laughingly call our government a republic. I was just wondering if there were a Stuart (or Stewart!) Pretender waiting in the wings. I certainly hope an independent Scotland can field a better rugby team for the next World Cup, although in fairness the Scots whipped the American side soundly and made them cry like little girls. If anyone is still awake, thank you for reading this far. I remember my summer in Orkney, 30 years ago, very fondly, for the stark beauty of the place and the opportunity to meet so many family members and other wonderful people and experience their way of life, and finally for the lifetime addiction to fresh cheese and oat cakes. I will return, someday soon, so you might want to count the silver and put some newspapers down. Have a pleasant Monday. Regards, George Coghill Olympia, Washington USA