Editor, Vermont Commons:

It is high time for the citizens of Vermont to seriously consider seceding
from the United States of America.

Illegal wars have bankrupted our country and caused the deaths of millions
of people abroad. In the current illegal Iraq war, Vermonters have taken
the highest casualties per capita of any of the 50 states.

Let's look carefully at the guarantees we were given in order for us, our
ancestors, to join the Union. Those guarantees included the Bill of Rights,
the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. A careful study of history
will reward one with the knowledge that Vermont would never have joined the
Union were it not for the Bill of Rights.

Now, however, under the crypto-fascist Bush regime, not only have our
Constitutionally-guaranteed rights been abrogated and trampled ... the
tyrant currently occupying the White House is making a mockery of the checks
and balances put in place by our forefathers. He is doing so by attaching
'signing statements' to a huge number of new laws, in effect promising to
break those laws! This is a despot who is placing himself above the law,
and how ironic that most of Congress is going right along with him and his
Neocon supporters.

If the 'democratic system' held forth any hope of change, I would say to
stay the course and give our electorate the chance to change things. But
for all intents and purposes, we have descended to where we have a one-party
system, masquerading as a two-party system. It is impossible for any third
party, or candidate, to gain any headway in the process, because of the huge
vestments of authority and influence into the hands of special interests.
An example of this is the gambling industry -- in New York State, large
numbers of gambling (off-track betting) patronage jobs are handed out to
Democrats and Republicans, effectively yielding worker-drones for the two
big parties, people who do the dirty work of getting people onto ballots,
campaigning for them, etc. No third party has a chance in a system which
effectively monopolizes not only the mass media, but holds the purse strings
that manipulate the workforces which control the electoral system.

Here in Vermont, we have the noblest and most industrious populace of any
country the world over. We can do for ourselves -- we do not need Big
Brother to do for us! We are the hardiest people in the world, and our
state is a paradise on earth (for those who enjoy its climate in
particular). When you enter Vermont from another place, you feel in your
bones that you are in a better place than you were before. The air and
water are clean, the people are genuine and deeply friendly, and the way of
life has diverse and deep integrity.

It is time for us in Vermont to be our own country again. Like the Sokoki
Abenaki, who inhabited these parts, and whose descendants are still among
us, we must go our own way, for that is what Sokoki means -- the people who
go their own way. We have taken Vermont forward, and now it is time to take
Vermont back from the grip of nationalist fascism. Let's have a referendum
for independence from the Union!

John Wilmerding

Brattleboro, Vermont