Well, Deda, it's a shocker of a proposition. I would prefer to believe that phases like this one have come and gone in the past and the Union has rejoined in spite of the worst efforts of those who would divide it. An un-healable rift? My god, the stomach curls at the very thought!! I do hope your intuition is off the mark this time. And given the pushy nature of so many of us, and the recentness of our crying for Manifest Destiny, I am afraid one the siblings would turn and consume the other, just as the Noath did in 1864. Why should a house divided into two stand any better than a house divided against itself?

A