MESSAGE FROM THE SECOND REPUBLIC OF VERMONT

EDITORIAL: U.S. Out Of Vermont: Long Live the “Untied States”

Last June, the Associated Press’ Vermont Bureau ran a news story entitled “Vermont Independence Movement Gains Traction.” Picked up by the national news wire, the article, written by Vermont Bureau Chief John Curran, made its way around the world via the Internet, prompting words of encouragement and ridicule, condemnation and support, from citizens all over the world. And, at Montpelier’s “Riverwalk Records” on State Street, one of the season’s hottest selling items became a simple black T-shirt reading “U.S. Out Of Vermont.” Despite the steep price - $20 each - the store sold more than 500 of them this past summer alone.

“U.S. Out Of Vermont.” How to explain the popularity of such sentiment?
Some of the energy is faddish, no doubt, while other left-leaning Bush-bashers reflexively point to, as a primary cause, the past seven years of “King George” and Vice Resident Cheney’s Beltway reign.

But “U.S. Out Of Vermont?” This from a state that has enthusiastically contributed, to the rest of the country, Ethan Allen’s defiance, John Deere’s plow, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, Robert Frost’s poetry, Joseph Bentley’s science, Grace Potter’s music, John Dewey’s pedagogy, and more pancake syrup than you can shake a maple limb at? This from a state that has willingly sent its own sons (and now daughters, too, in Iraqi desert and the Afghani mountains) to fight and die on behalf of America since the independent republic of Vermont joined the United States in 1791?

Perhaps the citizens of Vermont, along with the rest of the world, are beginning to realize that the United States is now longer the democratic republic we once were.
Indeed, as Americans, we are now citizens of an Empire ruled by an ever-more-powerful military/industrial/media/energy complex.

And the problem, the tragedy, of the United States is one of scale. We are simply too BIG.

We are a nation where each lone Congressman down the road from K Street represents more than 635,000 individual citizens. We are a country where even state and local elections are now (mostly) conducted via computerized touch screens monitored by proprietary corporate computer codes. We live in a surveillance state where all of our daily transactions are increasingly monitored, collected and stored by a faceless few whose own visages we never see. We move in the midst of what former Bush I HUD regulator Catherine Austin Fitts calls an imperial “tapeworm economy,” a system created by an unholy alliance between the captains of D.C.’s beltway and the captains of industry – “corporatism” born out of the fires of Lincoln’s “civil war.”

What’s hot now, in our globalized 21st century world, is what author Naomi Klein refers to (in her forthcoming book) as The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism: simply stated, the “shock and awe” creation of stupendous profits by the very few through exploiting the misery of the many. This includes war-making and counter-“terrorism” efforts (increasingly confused as the same thing) or the profiting from other disasters: real (Katrina), imagined (Avian Flu), or manufactured (9/11).

This is what the U.S., as an Empire, has become, as we enter the 21st century.
And no amount of big heartedness, generosity, or good will – qualities that actual working Americans of all political stripes possess, in spades – will turn the ship of Empire away from a rendezvous with destiny, in the form of climate change, global Peak Oil, an endless war on “terror,” global financial meltdown, and the fruitless (though very profitable, for some) pursuit of an imperial policy of “full spectrum dominance” – U.S. the Colossus attempting to bestride the entire world, and (I’m not kidding) outer space, too.

Unless.

Unless we “untie” the United States.

U.S. out of Vermont. And Kansas. And Florida. And Mississippi. And Ohio. And California. Indeed, citizen movements in no fewer than twenty-five other states are exploring secession. Vermont is not alone here.

The “Untied States.”

But where do we start?

We start where we live. And work. And play. We’ve been exploring this question for more than two years now – in print and online.

Here’s a short list:

We start with “homestead security:” inventing new forms of renewable energy to power our homes, our workplaces, and our communities.

We start with “food sovereignty:” learning how to grow, harvest and store our own food again, and supporting our struggling family farmers all over the country who are doing the same.

We start with “people power:” re-inventing local and mass transportations systems that use less energy more efficiently.

We start with genuine financial freedom: collectively investing in local economies and local currencies – the Berkshares project, Ithaca Hours, and our own Burlington Bread all provide models and lessons for what works and what doesn’t.
And this list is just a beginning.

Ultimately, untying the Empire in this new century will not begin in the DC corridors of power, or corporate shareholder meetings, or the control rooms at CNN and FOX news.

It will begin, not with the U.S., but with us.
U.S. out of Vermont.

Long live the “Untied States.”
Rob Williams
Editor