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January 2006 VOICES of INDEPENDENCE INDEPENDENCE REFLECTIONS

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January 2006 VOICES of INDEPENDENCE INDEPENDENCE REFLECTIONS Vermontwww.vtcommons.org CommonsNumber 9 | January 2006 VOICES OF INDEPENDENCE INDEPENDENCE REFLECTIONS Vermont: The Once and Future Republic Vermont Commons is a print and online forum for exploring the idea of Vermont independ- ence—political, economic, social, and spiritual. By James Hogue By Frank Bryan Look for us the last Friday of every month in the Vermont Guardian, and visit our website at www.vtcommons.org. We are unaffiliated with epublic: A system of government in which the ow final the hues of October; the orange of any other organization or media, and interested Rpeople hold sovereign power and elect repre- Hoak and tamarack against the hard green of in all points of view. We welcome your letters, sentatives who exercise that power. It contrasts, on the fir, the light of the leaving sun sneaking up and thoughts, and participation. the one hand, with a pure democracy, in which the under from the south showing rare angles on the people or community as an organized whole forest floor, the heavens heaved northward, IN THIS ISSUE wield the sovereign power of government, and on patient and foreboding. the other with the rule of one person (such as a Driving through the colors of Vermont to 1 Vermont: The Once and Future Repub- king, emperor, czar, or sultan). Black’s Law Dictio- Montpelier this October past to advocate for the lic, by James Hogue and Frank Bryan nary, abridged seventh edition. secession of Vermont from the United States of 2 Re-Inventing Vermont: A New Year, an During the fourteen years between Vermont’s America, I was reminded of the music of Judy Open Invitation, by Rob Williams Declaration of Independence (January 15, 1777) Collins sung thirty years ago and the lyrics that 4 Representing Empire: The Politics of and its acceptance into the union (March 4, 1791) haunt me still: the Living Dead, by Thomas Naylor Vermont convened an elected assembly, adopted a Across the morning sky 5 Our Land, Our Destiny: Vermont Inde- constitution, coined its own money (VERMONT All the birds are leaving. pendence Convention Keynote Address, RES PUBLICA), operated a postal service, con- Oh how can they know by James Howard Kunstler ducted military operations, diplomatic relations It’s time for them to go. 6 A Not So Different Drummer, and trade, recruited and commanded its own mili- Before a winter’s fire by Garret Keizer tia, and wrote its own laws in a legislature elected We’ll still be dreaming 7 Independent Vermont/Independent at Town Meeting, where the people also elected I do not fear the time Wôbanakik, by Frederick M. Wiseman the governor and his twelve member council. I do not fear the time 10 Independent Media (Un)Covers The According to Ira Allen, Vermont from 1777 to Empire: Project Censored 2006, Book 1791 proved a “free & Independent State Wholy And in these words I found the themes that Review by Rob Williams unconnected with any Power whatever.” (Letter would govern the remarks I was to make that day 11 What Is “Independence”?, by Bill to Alexander Dundas and Justus Sherwood, May 8, and which I believe are essential to our cause. Brueckner 1781 re: the exchange of prisoners) Ira’s brother For secession is a final business. 12 The Middlebury Institute: The Logic of Ethan called it a “neutral republic” in his letter to American Secession, by Kirkpatrick Sale General Frederick Haldimand on June 16, 1782. Love From the brothers Allen to the first historians The first of these themes is love. JANUARY ON THE WEB such as Jared Sparks, then John Pell in 1929, I love my country. Long did it cradle my ances- through the romanticism of Frederick van de tors and long has it sustained me and nurtured my • Vermont Independence Parties (VIPS!) Water, to the recent scholarship of Michael Belle- children. If I had to choose one nation on which to • VT Calendar Independence Day: siles, Vermont is referred to as an independent place the fate the planet it would be America. And Your Comments state and republic. Said Sparks of the Green there is this: for the action I took that October day • Live Audio and Video Streaming Mountain Boys in his 1829 biography of Ethan: in Montpelier I would have been shot in many capi- • Your cards, letters, poetry, and prose tols of the world — Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for one. Independence was their first and determined I love America for the Bill of Rights, for Nor- Join the Conversation purpose; and, while they were neglected by mandy and Guadalcanal, for Ted Williams and www.vtcommons.org Congress, and, like another Poland, threatened Willy Nelson, for Mohammad Ali and Dotty West. to subscribe to our free electronic newsletter, with a triple partition between the adjoining When all is said and done, we are doomed if we contact [email protected] States, they felt at liberty to pursue any course, base our movement on hate or disgust, whether it that would secure their safety . It was on this be for President Bush or Bill Clinton, Wal-Mart or principle, that they encouraged advances to be Hollywood. love another more is not so say that in the passions made by the British, and not that they ever had On hearing several particularly vicious attacks of long ago we loved another less. the remotest intention of deserting the cause on George Bush last year at the Middlebury Con- of their country, or submitting in any manner vention I thought: “What will we do? Rejoin the COURAGE to the jurisdiction of the English government. union if Hillary is elected?” Hate is easy. Love takes guts. No. The emotion that should fill our hearts is So the second theme of our movement must be Sparks further states that many in Congress melancholy; the sadness of a season past. courage. True courage it seems to me involves refused to interfere in Vermont’s affairs, “affirming Because we have Vermont, we will be spared time and ambiguity. A philosopher once wrote, continued on page 8 the stillness of a winter’s fire alone. But to say we continued on page 9 2 VERMONT COMMONS JANUARY 2006 Re-Inventing Vermont: A New Year, An Open Invitation… awn comes a bit earlier now that January is out of the primordial mists, but out of a particular Dhere in central Vermont’s Mad River Valley, historical moment – the collective 1776 decision and our cozy communities bustle with visitors by a small number of English colonists to assent to sneaking in one more ski before heading home, certain agreed-upon basic truths. From this kids returning to school after the holidays, and the famous “revolutionary” moment, Will asserts, a warmth and hum of local commerce. We are sur- small group of middling and well-to-do merchants rounded by what sometimes feels like timeless invented a new republic with the Constitution’s beauty here: the understated majesty of the snow- 1788 ratification, as well as creating a national blanketed Green Mountains just to our west; the creed revolving around those famous and much- Mad River’s morning mist snaking lazily across debated words from Jefferson’s Declaration. “Life, the frozen belts of ice-crusted meadow and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are corner- through the naked trees; the ski and snowmobile stones of U.S. mythology. Our national doctrine. trails crisscrossing the Valley floor, beckoning for Our creed. One to which all of us in the United just a few minutes of our precious time. States, regardless of where we are from, assent. Though this is a scene that fellow Vermonter We at Vermont Commons are hammering out our Norman Rockwell would love, we know, too, of own creed, built, like Jefferson’s “Declaration,” on the realities a Vermont winter brings. Keeping three fundamental beliefs. The first of these is that our homes warm, our families fed, and our farms, this collective project called the United States - schools, businesses, civic networks, and houses of once a near-universally admired republic and now worship alive in the dead of winter requires hard the richest and most powerful Empire on the work and constant vigilance. And we all have planet - is simply too big and too unsustainable to VERMONT COMMONS neighbors struggling to survive in the face of ris- continue existing in its current form. We assert ing energy costs and dwindling federal support this, as Frank Bryan reminds us in these pages, not www.vtcommons.org for society’s most vulnerable – “to heat or to eat” lightly or with any anger, glee, or malice, but with Publisher Ian Baldwin becomes a real and difficult choice for many. Our a deep sense of melancholy and no small measure Associate Publisher Rick Foley and beautiful yet precarious Green Mountain exis- of regret. We are patriots first and foremost. We Rob Williams tence is thrown into even sharper relief when are proud to be Americans. We are in love with Editor Rob Williams considered against a national backdrop much less this continent’s stunning landscapes, its marvelous Art Director Peter Holm inviting than our snow-covered landscape: spiking cities and quaint towns, and its generous people. If Cartoon Editors Tim Matson and Ian Kiehle fossil fuel prices, mounting national debt, titanic given the choice, most all of us would live Editor-at-Large Kirkpatrick Sale military expenditures, unbridled corporate nowhere else but here. Advertising Manager Ian Kiehle power, and a sense that world events are beyond But “here” in these United States — our coun- Subscriptions Caitlin Bright and our control. try, and, more importantly, our national govern- J.
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