Free Vermont: Going Back To The Future

230 years ago this month, a small group of men and women living in a loosely-knit group of colonial frontier communities at the edge of what Europeans called “the known world” produced a document announcing their intention to secede from the most powerful empire on the planet.

You may remember.

We call it the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

A declaration that, at its core, is about secession.

Close collaboration between the British Empire's political and economic elite – King George, the Parliament, and proto-corporations like the British East India Tea Company - ran London's 18th century Empire.

And all of our most celebrated “revolutionaries” – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John and Abigail Adams, Ben Franklin – were British subjects AND political secessionists.

Our founding mothers and fathers lived lives governed by the arbitrary rule of Parliament and King George.

Until 1776.

Here's what our secession-minded Founding Fathers (and Mothers) proclaimed during the summer of that fateful year:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Laughable claims, at a time when kings and czars, queens and emperors held sway, most folks did as they were told, and the world knew nothing of democratic republics, except what a few educated 18th century elites may have learned in their study of the ancient world.

“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Any government, in other words, ultimately answered to the people. Not the other way around.

“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Savor these words.

They are the foundations of our North American experiment in self-government.

More than two centuries later, as citizen-subjects of the most powerful empire the world has ever known (U.S. = us), we face challenges as great as those faced by our secession-minded founders.

Consider:

Stupendous corporate corruption and illegal and immoral “taxation without representation.” As former Bush I administration insider Catherine Austin Fitts details in this issue, our hard-earned wealth is being parasitically siphoned off on behalf of the very few super-rich at the expense of the rest of us.

The twin scourges of global climate change and global Peak Oil bearing down on us while the energy industry, large multinational corporations, and the many millionaire politicians who love them practice an inhumane form of “disaster capitalism,” pocketing profits from 9/11 and other “terrorist” attacks (real and engineered), hurricane “relief,” war-making, “pump and dump” financial schemes, and other catastrophes. 9/11 researcher Jim Hogue's words are but the tip of a giant iceberg upon which the U.S.S. Empire is foundering.

Massive national electoral fraud, finally being whispered about in the U.S. mainstream “news” community. Read more from Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller, and Robert F. Kennedy at our web site.

The ever-increasing militarization of our society, with more than 2,500 U.S. soldiers dead in distant battlefields, and the promise from D.C. of a “war that will not end in our lifetimes.” Harvard University Kennedy School researcher Linda Bilmes and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, are now predicting that the Iraq War may cost American tax-payers $2 trillion by the time the radioactive dust settles.

That's a thousand billions.

You can download and read their report at our web site.

So what can we as Vermont citizens (indeed, as concerned citizens of a 21st century world in crisis) do about all of this?

Let's begin by acknowledging the truth of our predicament.

Let's begin with the cry: “No more business as usual.”

As Americans and Vermonters, we've had the luxury of ignoring this developing crisis for years, even decades. But, as Peter Forbes makes clear in his essay, the relationship between our beloved Green Mountain landscape and Vermont's 256 towns has evolved over the years in complicated and sometimes unpredictable ways.

And we are yet again at another historical crossroads.

As Americans, we are addicted to fossil fuel energy. A free Vermont will re-invent itself with a sustainable plan for 21st century energy independence. While the governor's office ducked its chance to buy the Connecticut River hydro dam projects and dithers over wind power's ridgeline aesthetics, ordinary Vermonters and a few far-sighted state legislators are rolling up their sleeves and building local energy alternatives to confront global Peak Oil. Dennis Derryberry details their efforts in this issue.

As Americans, we eat fossil fuel energy, as most of our food has been grown with fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides, and has traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to reach our plates. A free Vermont, led by local coalitions of farmers, entrepreneurs, community networks, and educated food consumers, will re-invent itself by embracing “food sovereignty,” working to ensure a safe and adequate agricultural system and food supply to feed our citizens in a post-carbon world. Read “American Flatbread” owner George Schenk and Vermont “Localvore” co-founder Robin McDermott's inspiring words to learn more.

As Americans and Vermonters, we are accustomed to living in a political culture where other people, often living in distant places, make decisions for us. In a free Vermont, this, too, will change.

But only if we work together to make it so.

Decentralizing political power – from DC to the Green Mountains, and from Montpelier to every one of our 256 cities, towns and villages - is essential.

Re-localizing our economic life, too, is vital.

And any future success in a free Vermont must look past the manufactured dualisms that divide us.

Liberals versus conservatives.

Republicans versus Democrats.

Blue states versus Red.

Any future success in a free Vermont, instead, must identify those common principles – sustainable energy, food sovereignty, homestead security, and yes, peaceable secession – upon which we can agree and build.

The 21st century world is changing.

The 21st century world will look little like the 20th.

Free Vermont.

Long live the (dis)United States.

Happy Independence Day.

Rob Williams
Editor