“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

The time has come for a third American Revolution. The first Revolution occurred in 1776, when 13 out of 30 British colonies in the western hemisphere seceded to prevent consolidation into an increasingly centralized British empire. John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were secessionists.  The second revolution, the opposite of the first, occurred between 1861 and 1865 (the misnamed “Civil War”) to create a consolidated American Union that could compete with the empires of Europe; a regime “one and indivisible” from which secession would be impossible.  

Dear Editor,

 Christopher Ketcham's article in Good magazine (“Most Likely to Secede,” www.Goodmagazine.com) touches on many important issues, of which secession is arguably the most important. While I strongly empathize with the complaints and analyses of the secessionists, I also believe that secession should not be the MEANS, but the END goal.   

Gaye Symington of Jericho, Speaker of the House in the Vermont Legislature from January 2005 to June 2008, is the Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont. This is the second in a series of interviews with Vermont’s 2008 gubernatorial candidates. Progressive Anthony Pollina was interviewed in the Spring 2008 issue of Vermont Commons. Incumbent Republican governor Jim Douglas will be interviewed in the fall 2008 issue.

Middlebury Campus, April 10, 2008

“Thoughtful Vermonters, opposed to the tyranny of the United States government, corporate America, and globalization, believe that Vermont should once again become an independent republic, as it was between 1777 and 1791, and that the United States of America should begin to peacefully dissolve,” reads an excerpt from Secession: How Vermont And Other States Can Save Themselves From The Empire, a new book by retired Duke University economics professor Thomas Naylor.    

Bess O’Brien is a filmmaker who lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Her newest film, Shout it Out, is in many ways a collaboration with its cast, a group of teenagers whose thoughts about being young in Vermont helped form the script. The movie will be touring the state this summer. Vermont Commons editor Rob Williams conducted this interview.

VC: Describe the genesis of the Shout it Out, “The Voices Project” movie. Where did the idea come from?

Throughout human history, there has been a persistent yearning among ordinary peoples to live under comprehensible social, political, and economic conditions that afforded them shared customs and memories, agreed-upon standards of right behavior, recognized status, security against brigandage and invasion, and reasonable prospects for achieving economic security.   

So he finds himself on the cusp of another July 4th and all its strange customs: Parades built on the back of cheap petroleum, night skies polluted by the small explosions of fireworks, kegs and coolers brimming with pallid domestic beers, grills stacked high with chickens who never set foot on the soft, brown earth during their short and brutish lives. And somewhere in there, perhaps, for some (and especially after a few PBRs), a swell of patriotism.   

Do you want a quick way to reduce your rapidly increasing weekly food bill by 25 percent?  It’s easy: stop wasting food.  According to a recent article in the New York Times, 25 percent of all food purchased in the U.S. ends up in the trash.  Not only is this a waste of money, but it is bad for our landfills now bursting at their seams with unwanted remnants of our wasteful society.  I do find it hard to believe that frugal Vermonters are near the national average in terms of food waste.