The 2006 Elections: Much Ado About Nothing

By Thomas Naylor

It's hard to imagine the possibility of a kid-term election ever attracting as much national media hype as did the 2006 election. Not only was Mr. Bush's military strategy soundly rejected, but the Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned.

So elated by the news that Nancy Pelosi would be the new Speaker of the House, one of my former Duke University colleagues wrote to me that, the morning after the election, she “burst into uncontrollable tears, not realizing how deeply grateful I feel that the American public actually seems to be coming to its senses.”

Secessionism in Vermont: Where I Stand

By Frank Bryan

Enough.

It is time to get busy with the business of secession.

We want to act. We need to act. It is time to act.

Let us heed the words of Robert Lewis Stevenson:

You cannot run away from a weakness
You must some time fight it out or perish
And if that be so, why not now?
And where you stand?

And where do we stand?

We stand in Vermont.

One of our greatest citizens, John Dewey, once said: "Democracy must begin at home and its home is the small community."

So too, I would argue, must secession begin at home. And America's homeland is Vermont.

Grass-Fed Is Best: “Recovering” Vegetarians And Growing Vermont's Farm Future In Huntington

By Bruce Hennessey

For seven years, I didn't eat meat, not because I didn't like it or objected to the killing of animals for food, but because the negative health and environmental impacts seemed to argue in favor of leaving animal protein out of my diet entirely. In retrospect, it turns out I didn't have the whole story. Getting to the meat of the matter has been a life-changing journey – and, oddly enough, our transition from a non-agrarian/vegetarian lifestyle to full-fledged grass farming came through unexpected circumstances.

Electing Independence - Editorial

By Ian Baldwin

Last night I awoke at around 3 A.M. and walked outside to listen to the coyotes and enjoy the strangely lemon-like moonlight air. I looked up. Right above me in the moonlit sky I saw a broad steady band of…something cloudlike, an undiminished vapor trail, stretching as far as I could see from east to west. It was not anything ordinary. It just sat there, a motionless ribbon I couldn't fathom. After a time, I went back to bed.

In the morning I barely mentioned the event to my wife. There it was: something inexplicable, obviously human-caused, silent, at 3 A.M. unobtrusive, and therefore unremarked. Yes, maybe if I dropped the whole of my pursuits and dove into this one, possibly anomalous, random mystery, tracking it relentlessly through the Internet, maybe I'd come up with something. But I don't want to feed my conspiratorial inklings.

Vermont Vox Populi: A Conversation with “Farmer's Diner" Owner Tod Murphy and VC Editor Rob Williams

Q (Rob). When most of us hear the word "diner," we may be reminded of our favorite local Ma and Pa "greasy spoon" joint. Explain the radical concept – serving food mostly acquired from within a 100 mile radius - behind your notion of a "Farmer's Diner."

A (Tod). Gee, I wouldn't call what we do here at the Farmer's Diner “radical.” Given the popularity of the restaurant with so many people from various political and social backgrounds, the restaurant seems pretty mainstream, in terms of what people say they value when given the chance to express themselves. Things like great-tasting food that comes from real farmers and folks who live nearby.

Free Vermont Media

By Rob Williams

Do you dream of a free Vermont? So do we, and the stories told in the media we consume can help us re-imagine what an independent Vermont might look like. Vermont Commons readers/subscribers are vociferous media hounds. We like books. We enjoy films. (And if you haven't yet seen “Syriana,” “Who Killed The Electric Car,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” or “V for Vendetta,” all four are now out on DVD. Each one, in its own way, makes a compelling case for secession and economic re-localization.) Heck, we even play video games. If someone out there wants to design us a Sim-City-like piece of software that helps us imagine how Vermont independence might play out (positively, we hope – optimists-are-us here), we're all ears. Starting with this issue, we'll be regularly serving up our favorite multimedia resources for a free Vermont. Here's what's been on my night table of late.

Monetary Secession Now

By Franklin Sanders

“First, do no harm.” Hippocrates' rule for physicians applies to secession movements as well. Secession ought to better the nation and not harm it. Otherwise, why undergo the danger and fatigue of changing one government for another? How will hearts be won to secession unless it improves lives?

The money we choose will affect everything else in our world. The monetary question boils down to this, whether our lives will be ruled by realities, or by abstractions. Real things, or non-existent illusions conjured up to defraud us. Real things and real values we freely choose for ourselves, or unreal abstracts forced on us by somebody else. If money must have value, then I have to go out and earn – accumulate – real wealth. If money is merely a symbol, then productive work is unnecessary. Whoever creates the symbols controls society, and the rest of us become their gulled slaves.

Divided We Stand, United We Fall: The First North American Secession Convention:

By Kirkpatrick Sale

Well, it happened. The Middlebury Institute pulled off the First North American Secessionist Convention in Burlington last November, and it was as successful as any first-time effort in this ticklish political territory could be.

More than forty people attended the event, including journalists and camera crews, and, in an all-day roundtable discussion, portrayed the current strength of the secessionist movement, its strategies, its outreach, its potential. Delegates came from 16 secessionist organizations in 18 states, including Hawaii, Alaska, Cascadia (along the Cascades in the West), Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.