If Vermont were to secede from the United States empire and become an independent nation-state, how could it possibly survive as a separate republic? How would it function? Are there any examples of smaller, sustainable nation-states which might serve as a role model for a state like Vermont, should it decide to leave the U.S.? There is at least one such nation that might serve as a viable model for an independent Vermont: the Swiss Confederation.

Imagine...a Free Vermont!

Editor's Note: Lendman's article is particularly timely, in light of UVM researcher Gary Flomenhoft's "Message In A Bottle" COMMONS feature on the current status of Vermont's groundwater, found in the current MUD SEASON issue of the news journal. 

Vermont's Groundwater: Pure'ly Private?

Dear John Ryan,

I read with interest your letter in Seven Days last week in response to my letter about their so-called media issue. (I printed your letter out below in its entirety.)

Even though you and I have never actually met, we do seem to share much in common.

We're both good-looking fellas.

Rob Williams.

Editor's Note: We profiled our favorite Vermont-based social network - Michael Wood Lewis' Front Porch Forum out of Burlington in a recent issue of Vermont Commons - looks like they just got a big plug in Yankee magazine by Ripton writer Bill McKibben. Check it out.

Why doesn't Vermont just annex itself to Canada and get it over with?

by David Budbill.

Interesting FREE VERMONT RADIO podcast.

Dennis Steele and Free Vermont Radio.

The Vermont independence effort's 2010 gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele challenges the Democratic candidates at their UVM "debate" on the important question of bringing home Vermont's National Guard, and challenging federal authority.

Interesting listening.

While bank bailouts fatten Wall Street, states continue to battle the credit crisis. In the search for innovative solutions, some political candidates are proposing that states generate their own credit by setting up their own banks.

March 4, 1791 - the day that citizens of an independent Vermont republic (1777 - 1791) voted to join the new United States. Time to re-think that decision, fellow Vermont citizens. Free Vermont! Long live the UNtied States.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I wonder if Ralph Nader is ready for nonviolent secession? As he asks at article's end: Where are “We the People”?

 The twin swelling heads of Empire and Oligarchy are driving our country into an ever-deepening corporate state, wholly incompatible with democracy and the rule of law.

Once again the New York Times offers its readers the evidence. In its February 25, 2010 issue, two page-one stories confirm this relentless deterioration at the expense of so many innocent people.

Town meeting voters in all four Mad River Valley towns - Warren, Waitsfield, Moretown, and Fayston - overwhelmingly supported a resolution today urging the state legislature NOT to relicense Vermont Yankee after its contract expires in 2012.

Even though the Vermont state Senate voted to do the same last week, it still feels good.

Here's A.P. writer John Curran's wrap-up on the issue.

Happy town meeting day.