Times Argus
This is a printer friendly version of an article from www.timesargus.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
Back
Article published Feb 14, 2008 Independence groups don't make agendas for Town Meeting Day
By John Curran Associated Press
MONTPELIER — Supporters of a campaign to get Vermont to secede from the nation failed to get the necessary signatures to put independence resolutions on Town Meeting Day ballots, but they say some people may introduce resolutions from the floor in hopes of airing the idea with voters.
"We've got citizens in a number of towns interested in using Town Meeting as a way to advance this," said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a newspaper devoted to secession. "If it happens, it's going to come from the floor. But we don't know who's going to introduce it."
Williams is one of a handful of writers and academics pushing secession as a viable alternative to what they say is a federal government that has gone astray. The idea, which is being pushed by several different groups, has gotten renewed attention in recent years due to disenchantment over the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of the pro-secession groups in other states.
Their hopes of gaining more momentum through Town Meeting votes, however, will likely have to wait another year.
Despite expressions of interest from people in Bradford, Brookline, Brattleboro, Burlington, Fayston, Moretown, Montpelier, Richford, Strafford, Stockbridge, St. Johnsbury, Vershire, Waitsfield, Warren, Waterbury and Wilmington, no Town Meeting votes are planned.
"The message is that the idea of Vermont independence is a new and radical idea, and it's not an idea people are going to come to easily," said Williams, of Waitsfield. "We're under no illusions. It's a difficult idea to accept. Once you sort of acknowledge that it's a viable option, people are willing to explore it.
"But this is our first year of getting this going," he said.
The measure they had hoped to put before voters says:
"Be it resolved that we, the citizens of the UNDERSIGNED TOWN, call on the Vermont state legislature to convene a special session to debate the following one sentence resolution:
"Be it resolved that the state of Vermont peacefully and democratically free itself from the United States of America and return to its status as an independent republic, as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791."
In Waitsfield, they needed about 73 signatures but got only about 50.
"We never saw it," said Valerie Capels, Town Administrator. "If it was circulated, it didn't get to the town hall."
In nearby Fayston, secession supporter Gaelan Brown, 31, collected about 20 signatures — which was 30 shy of what he needed.
"I kind of think it's a little premature still," he said Wednesday. "People are scared by the thought. They're either on board — which is a small percentage of people — or they don't understand what it would mean or whether it's possible and 'Didn't the Civil War prove you can't do that?"' he said
"There's so many layers of understanding that need to be developed," he said.