Hi Wendell, 

(1a) Alternatively, you could consider a convention where making

@role on <rule> elements reset the default error level for all child

<report> or <assert> element, i.e. make it so that any child

<report> or <assert> elements that lack an explicit @role value will

inherit the value from the parent <rule>. This makes some sense, but

may be a stretch. What do people think?

This would be good, if it's not too much of a bother, and assuming
it's still consistent with the intended semantics of @role.