A good Vermont blog is The Vermizzle which has a post up today about the Second Vermont Republic movement and it's upcoming convention on Oct. 28th. Basically, it's a secession movement. They want Vermont to be it's own country (which it once was; hence the name of the movement).
The Vermizzle does a good job of laying out the basic ideas behind the desire to be a separate country. And while I agree with the sentiments, I don't back the movement for two reasons:
1) A few months ago there was an article in the Montpelier Bridge that laid out the case for secession. The big economic point was that there are other countries in the world as small as Vermont that are very successful financially. They then listed Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Luxemborg, Leichtenstein and a few other tax havens for the rich. Quite frankly, if the choice is between remaining a part of the US or becoming another tax haven for the rich, I'd much rather keep Vermont the way it is today.
2) The other reason I'm not supporting the movement is that the organization seems to be run by conspiracy theorists. The September issue of their newsletter, Vermont Commons, was dedicated to 9/11 and basically spent all of its ink railing against the US government and its cover-up of its involvement in 9/11. Here's an example:
What about Building 7, how does steel melt at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, what were those reported explosions inside the two towers heard by firemen and other victims, how come the Israelis didn’t show up for work, what about the extraordinary United and American Airlines put options that made someone a fortune, why was no photographic evidence of the crashed Boeing 757 shown in the Pentagon’s west wall, but only an impossibly small 15-foot hole, and how come the FBI snatched up that Arlington gas station’s video camera immediately, before anyone could see what was filmed, and no interceptions were launched in time, even to protect the world’s most defended structure, the military heart of the nation? And on and on. These questions ballooned out of me, building each upon the other, sickening in their scope and ambiguity.That's just crazy talk. As much as I disagree with the actions of the federal government at times, I don't think they were involved in 9/11. Just typing that last sentence feels crazy. A friend of mine was involved in the movement and recently resigned. He told me that the fringe has taken over the movement. Between his comments and that September newsletter, I'm not going to get behind the Second Vermont Republic.
4 comments:
I wonder if a modern day General Sherman will come riding into Vermont burning your cities and crops?
Oddly enough, we do have a town called Georgia in VT.
AND THEY'RE MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA!
AND THEY'RE MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA!
(small Pavement reference)
Everyone who's talking about secession seems to be doing it in typical Vermont fashion. I.e., they're all dreaming about what a wonderful thing it would be if it happened, but nobody's talking about the specifics of how it would actually happen after the secession vote. What do we do with the National Guard? What about taxes? What about federal security agencies, such as DHS and FBI? And speaking thereof, is the movement already infiltrated? What about currency? What about the structure of the new "federal" level of government? What would we do about people in the rest of America making a run for the new freedomland? Do we shut the borders against them?
WHERE'S THE PLAN?
Hey look! They are going to have one of the speakers dress as Ethan Allen and arrive by horse. Well, it should be quite the visual spectacle for the TV cameras. I guess a stunt like that ensures that the convention will get on the nightly news.
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