Patrick makes a point during his speech at the Democratic unity rally in Roslindale Square this evening.

Adam Rosi-Kessel has more photos and details on the speeches at the unity rally (um, Mr. Reilly, where were you?), but I'll focus on the Greta/Patrick debate.

You may recall Greta from this post a couple day ago - in which she expressed (over and over and over again) her disgust for Chris Gabrieli and his proposal to lengthen the school day. She decided she wanted to go to the rally; on the way over to the square, she informed me she now really disliked Patrick, too, because she'd read a newspaper article that said he also wanted to lengthen the school day.

When we get there, some Patrick volunteer thrusts a Patrick sign in Greta's hands. She goes in back of the stage they'd set up, out by the street, where a knot of elected officials and other people surround the newly arrived Patrick. He begins to walk to get up to the stage. But there stands Greta. Patrick bends down to say hello. Not so fast, bub. She has a determined look on her face. Her lower lip is jutted out. And she tells him she doesn't want her school day to be any longer. He laughs, she flees, and the speechifying begins.

After being introduced by Tim Murray and Tom Menino, Patrick gives a rip-roaring campaign speech, the main theme of which is to call for the recognition that government can be a force for good:

Government is not some thing. It's us! It's you and me!

In the middle of his speech, he talks about education. And he talks about this glum-looking girl holding one of his signs who wanted to know why he wanted to lengthen the school day. He allowed as how it was true - he did want to lengthen the school day. But, he went on:

It's not just about time in school. ... It's about exercise. It's about art. It's about music. It's about after-school activities. It's about tutoring. ... It's about the whole child!

The crowd goes wild.

Afterwards, over dinner at Village Sushi, Greta still wasn't willing to budge on the issue of a longer school day. But she no longer hated Patrick. And I felt really proud, not because Patrick brought her up in a speech, but because she went up to this guy who might be our next governor and told him what she thought.

You can make me hold this sign, but I don't have to like it: