[Peter Ansoff]

April 6th is celebrated as "Tartan Day" by people of Scottish heritage in the USA and Canada. The date commemorates the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, when the Scots appealed to the Pope to recognize their independence:

" . . .as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

. . . we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, . . . since with Him Whose Vice-Regent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman . . . May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own."

We're flying the St. Andrew's cross today for the holiday. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get a decent picture, because we have typical Scottish weather -- mist and rain.

Peter Ansoff