Down from 49?
Secessionist movements are alive and well in the former Republic of Vermont, according to yesterday’s Washington Post.
The article points out states’ rights arguments in a way all but ignored by the current crew in Washington — both administration and Congress alike. My personal favorite, though, is the description of the “true American Congress,” founded in Vermont:
A decade before the War of Independence, Vermont became New England’s first frontier, settled by pioneers escaping colonial bondage who hewed settlements across a lush region whose spine is the Green Mountains. These independent folk brought with them what Henry David Thoreau called the “true American Congress” — the New England town meeting, which is still the legislature for nearly all of Vermont’s 237 towns. Here every citizen is a legislator who helps fashion the rules that govern the locality.
When I was a stringer for a community newspaper, I covered local government for a small township of 3,900 or so. It was a typical township — most of the population was based in an unincorporated community. Three people served on the town board, but major business and initiatives were debated in an annual town meeting. There was when the budget was adopted, ordinances changed, so on and so forth. The town chairman once told me it was government at its finest.
I think we’ve lost that part of our heritage as Americans, as the article points out. As a city-dweller, I can’t imagine decisions being made en masse (would we have our annual town meeting at the Summerfest grounds?) but the American notion of government was designed to be local, cooperative and participatory. In designing the federalist-republic we now understand, the distribution of powers was key.
Vermont, after fair deliberation, should be allowed to make its own decision based upon the values of Vermonters of whether to remain in the United States or secede. I wonder what would happen if it became a self-governing commonwealth territory, similar to Guam or the Virgin Islands. Maybe it will become fully independent. In the end, the tenth amendment guarantees Vermont the ability to make decisions in its own interest.
Of course, statehood for the District of Columbia would balance out the equation and keep us at an even 50. Secession for those who want to leave and union for those who want to join. But if we let them do that, then everyone will want to use their Constitutional rights.
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Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
