The Vermont Secession movement is alive and well. I think it’s terribly selfish of them to not invite the rest of New England along. We could detach Fairfield County if they wanted, so our sole Republican Congressperson would feel more at home.
The folks in Vermont have it right:
“The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable _ it’s too big, it’s too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.
“We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war,” Williams said. “If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what’s left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire.”
In truth, this country can’t last forever. Someday it will disintegrate, or descend into tyranny. Disintegration is certainly preferable.
Since we all know that nothing lasts forever, most of us would agree that at some point, this country will no longer exist, at least in anywhere near its present form.
I lived in Vermont for a few years and was surprised at how many people take that topic seriously, and have for a long time. It wasn't as large or as vocal as the separatist movement in Quebec, or as violent. I lived in the heart of the October Crisis, since the kidnapped Pierre Laporte lived a couple of blocks from our house, so I remember the military on every corner, and monitoring our local parks, and every ones' daily movements... Not an ideal situation for the average kid. For those of you not familiar with Canadian politics, here is a "Wiki quickie" rundown of the basics:
Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970), was a Canadian politician who was the Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec at the time he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the terrorist group, the Front de Libération du Québec (Quebec Liberation Front).
snip
On October 10, 1970 Laporte was kidnapped from his home in Saint-Lambert, Quebec by a cell of the Quebec terrorist group known as the FLQ. They dubbed him the "Minister of Unemployment and Assimilation," and held him hostage in an anti-government protest. The events that followed became known as the "October Crisis" when the War Measures Act was invoked and Pierre Laporte's dead body was found in the trunk of a car seven days later on October 17. He had been strangled. His kidnappers were subsequently captured and sentenced to long prison terms for his murder, but in fact only served terms ranging from 7 to 11 years.
The secession issue has always been there in Vermont. And I don't doubt that it is getting more vocal these days.
Can't say I blame them given the situation in Washington over the last 10 or 20 years. "Empire" and the size and corruptibility of the US government are things that too few Americans will even acknowledge as real issues that need some serious attention. At this time there is no party that is willing to hold every politician accountable. Even the Democratic party has only a few "people candidates" that are consistently labeled as on the fringe by the media now. The bulk of Democratic candidates are beholden to the same corrupting agents as the bulk of Republican candidates. Though, the Democratic ones are for the most part less extremist in their corporatist views.
No comments:
Post a Comment