Our little newspaper made its statewide debut last issue – with
15,000 copies of our winter 2008 “Reviving Town Meeting” issue
circulating all over the once-and-future republic of Vermont in close
to 200 locations (and 500 subscribers receiving the newspaper through
the mail).

As we approach our third anniversary in print, this seems an
appropriate time to introduce our newspaper’s mission and vision to the
citizens of Vermont, since we are still fairly new in the Green
Mountain neighborhood.

So here’s our publishing statement, the words and ideas that inform who we are.

Founded in spring 2005, Vermont Commons is a newspaper by
and for the citizens of Vermont. We are solutions-oriented,
nonpartisan, and interested in promoting ongoing and vigorous debate
about a more sustainable future for the once-and-future republic of
Vermont, and the world as a whole.

From 1777 to 1791, the citizens of Vermont governed themselves as an independent republic. As we enter the 21st century, Vermont Commons is
a multimedia newspaper dedicated to the proposition that Vermonters
should consider peaceably seceding from the United States Empire and
governing themselves as a more sustainable independent republic once
again.

Vermont Commons newspaper and web site publish articles
and opinion written by citizen journalists doing the good work required
of us on a wide variety of fronts – energy, agriculture, local
currency, education, land use, localvores, media and more – by writers
as diverse as Judy Witt, Hazel Henderson, Robin McDermott, Frank Bryan,
Kirkpatrick Sale, Catherine Austin Fitts, Peter Forbes, George Schenck,
and James Howard Kunstler. Some of our writers advocate nonviolent
secession, while others are not yet convinced that this may be
Vermont’s most viable way forward. All of our writers, though, are
fierce champions of localism and decentralization. These visionary
thinkers are helping us imagine a more sustainable Vermont future into
which we can invest our time, energy, and financial and spiritual
resources.

Our editorial approach is informed by three interconnected beliefs.

We at Vermont Commons believe that the United States is no longer a republic governed by its citizens, but an empire that is essentially ungovernable.

We believe that a sovereign state's right to nonviolently
secede, first championed in the United States by the citizens of 19th
century New England, is a right that demands re-exploration in the 21st
century.

We believe that a 21st century Vermont, working in concert with
our neighbors and the rest of the world, may better be able to feed,
power, educate, and care for its citizens as an independent 21st
century republic than as one of 50 states within the U.S. Empire, given
the new century's emerging realities: climate change, global peak oil,
and an "endless war on terror" for "full-spectrum dominance" being
waged by the U.S. government for geo-strategic control of the world's
remaining fossil fuel energy resources.

And it is this publishing statement that graces the home page of our web site.

The 21st century is shaping up to be very different from the 20th.

We urge all Vermonters to take a good hard look at the future unfolding before us, and join this important conversation.

And to do so thoughtfully, and with an eye toward shaping a more
sustainable future for ourselves and our children, at home, here in our
once-and-future republic.

Long live the “Untied States.”

Free Vermont.

Rob Williams
Editor