Vermont Wants to Secede

Some Vermonters are serious about seceding from the United States. I first came upon this issue in the Summer of 2005. We were in the great peace and justice store on Church street in Burlington, Vermont. The flyer said: Vermont should secede from the union!! I thought it an interesting idea especially after the debacle in 2004 with no end in sight.

Yesterday, at the Huffington Post I saw the article "Vermont is serious about seceding from the Union." The philosophy goes like this: the United States has become too big and ungovernable and much too corrupt and no longer represents its citizens (nothing to disagree with there). These Vermonters want go back to the time of 1777 - 1791 when Vermont was its own independent government. A various coalition of constituents in Vermont want to try and put the question before the Vermont citizens in March. They even held a convention with 300 attendees back in 2005 with another in the planning stages. Polling suggest that the idea is gaining traction. Thirteen percent support the idea up from nine percent a year ago.

Secession movements have a bit of history the article states: "Key West, Fla., staged a mock secession from America in the 1980s. In Vermont, the town of Killington tried to break away and join New Hampshire in 2004, and Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Texas all have some form of secession organizations today."

The movement began its traction around the time of the Iraq war and maintains itself because of the disastrous war government currently in place. Vermont is known to us (among other activist stances) mostly because of the vast amount of towns around the state calling for Bush's impeachment. The state legislature has also put impeachment on the table. And the only state in the Union that currently elected a socialist in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, my personal favorite Senator.

Frank Bryan, a professor at the University of Vermont who has championed the cause for years, said the cachet of secession would make the new republic a magnet for out of staters.

I always loved Vermont, the beauty and peacefulness of the state and its communities; and this idea is becoming intriguing. Maybe I will check out that job in Burlington, Vermont after all.

Resources to check out of interested: Second Vermont Republic, Middlebury Institute and Free Vermont.net