The crowd in the Diag on Friday was relatively small (only about 100, if you believe the Daily), but everybody there was passionate and in a defiant mood, even though the overriding mood of the times is one of fear and (sometimes) despair. Ralph Williams, who has been in the English Department here since 1969, gave a short but powerful speech. As I stood there, I couldn’t help but recall all of the similar rallies and other events I strenuously avoided in White Plaza at Stanford when I was an undergrad. Those were different times. It’s strange how these times seem so much “better” in many material ways yet somehow also on the brink of being suddenly, frighteningly, and unimaginably worse. Proposal 2 is just one close-to-home and concrete example of that paradox.