On Monday, May 11, 2009, at UVM’s Dudley Davis Center, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders stood up in front of close to 500 Vermonters at the “Summit on the Future of Vermont” conference and stated: “I know there are some Vermonters who believe we should secede from the Union.” 

Brushing aside the sporadic cheering, Bernie launched into the argument that Vermont might become a national leader on – you guessed it – Bernie’s litany of cure-alls: single-payer health care, green economy, and communications/transportation revolution, for starters.     

The “Lead, not Secede” solution.   

It was a remarkable moment.  To our knowledge, Vermont's most popular elected politician had never before publicly acknowledged the growing presence of one of the most vibrant nonviolent secession movements in the country, the one in his home state.  Perhaps Bernie was responding to Thomas Naylor, the founder of the Second Vermont Republic and an inspirational voice in the current resurgence of the traditional Vermont preference for local autonomy and community-based interdependence.  During the SVR Convocation last November, Naylor had publicly challenged Bernie to forsake the rotting, sinking USS Federal Government to run for governor and commit to doing “real work” on behalf of Vermonters.   

Secede and Lead, indeed, Bernie.   

In terms of the Future of Vermont project, we applaud Paul Costello and Sarah Waring from the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) for their leadership in initiating and managing the statewide effort to develop long-range plans for our state.  They mapped out a two-year process, built an impressive funding base and budget, formed a credible 18-member “board,” orchestrated dozens of citizen “listening sessions” and public forums, contracted with two Saint Michael’s College professors to flesh out a final 100-page report with support from a team of experts and contributing authors, and scheduled 14 follow-up public discussions.    

Meanwhile, a couple of us Vermont Commons editors (Rick Foley and Ron Miller) busted open our piggy banks, clicked our way through friends-of-Vermont Independence e-mail lists, and pulled together our own project – starting with a “Retreat: Dreaming Vermont’s Destiny.” The purpose of this gathering was to bring together a group of creative problem-solvers who have already begun working toward de-centralization – local self-sufficiency, sustainability and political autonomy – and to develop a comprehensive, out-of-the-box vision for Vermont’s future, one that didn’t rule out sovereignty issues, including secession.     

Forty-five feisty activists, deep thinkers, and practitioners convened during the first weekend in May at Goddard College. On Friday evening we introduced ourselves and divided our assembly into six groups based on shared interests — Agriculture, Health Care, Energy, Governance/The Commons, Business/Banking/Currency, and Education/Media/Culture.    

On Saturday the groups built the skeletons for Position/Option Papers (POPs) by crafting expansive, even inspirational visions, or ploughing through self-inflicted Mud Seasons of conflicting perspectives, or pounding out eye-opening, rousing action steps. It was all great stuff. Real, face-to-face democracy, after all, can be a messy business.    

That evening five speakers reaffirmed the profound nature of our collaborative work. Thomas Naylor set the tone by acknowledging how our Retreat cohort was positioned to carry on the unfinished business of the original War of Independence, that our small number could mobilize a growing number of Vermonters confronting the reality that the current beast – the corrupt, coercive the American-British Empire – had largely replaced the original target of the American patriots, the arrogant British Empire. But that our revolution would be one conducted in peace.   

In the spirit of celebrating the vision of Vermont’s independence, Gary Flomenhoft delivered “checks” for every Vermont Citizen for $1,972 from the VT Common Asset Trust Fund.  Adrian Kuzminski reminded us how the original Vermont confederation of towns delivered one of the most compelling examples of true, participatory democracy in modern history, grounded in a sustainable currency and economy.  Abe Collins stunned the audience with his Carbon Farmers of America message: that the restoration of the planet’s former wealth of healthy soil is the key to reversing global warming, food and water shortages, and the loss of small farms. We ended the night raucously roasting Ethan Allen (a.k.a. Jim Hogue) for his failure to support Shays’ rebellion and to derail Vermont’s application to the Union.   

On Sunday morning as we sat in our large circle, we applauded the groups as they presented the outcomes of their POP works-in-progress.  We unanimously called for a continuation of our work together, fantasized about rocking the world with our words and deeds, and basked in the energetic glow of hard-won community collaboration.    

In retrospect our Retreat’s courageous, informed citizens role-modeled participatory democracy under two flags – physically, the flag of the original Republic of Vermont, and the other metaphysically, the emergent, global constellation of local expressions that Paul Hawken has characterized as the “Blessed Unrest.”     

It will be fun to see how the Retreat participants, our newly minted Vermont Patriots, wrap up their respective vision statements, POPs, and solution sets over the summer.  At our next gathering in the fall, we’ll chart what promises to be a radical course toward full-spectrum independence. In Montpelier, in the Statehouse, in the legislative chambers?  As a self-selected, re-instituted Council of Censors? As a Vermont Independence Movement (VIM)?  As a political party (VIP)?  As an open, welcoming participatory shadow government?   

Why not?  Stay tuned.    

But will it be more instructive – if not prophetic – to assess whether our Vermont Patriots’ bootstrap effort or the VCRD project will most clearly illuminate the path to a sustainable, just future for Vermont.  What Vermont’s iconic farmer-entrepreneur Will Raap refers to as the Third Way, the coalition of “Progressive Conservationists.”    

I’m rooting for both explorations, but my heart is with the Vermont Patriots, the “wing-nuts” at the Retreat.  

Rick Foley  
Associate Editor