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Vermont Commons is a print journal and online forum for exploring the idea of Vermont independence – political, economic, social, and spiritual. We welcome your letters, thoughts, and participation.
Issue 34 - Mud Season 2010
EDITORIAL: Seven For The Senate...And Counting. (Dennis Morrisseau)
Vermont needs to hike up her boots and cut herself loose. We will
do this in town after town after town. Mingle and talk and take names.
Pass the hat at the end, for $5 or $10 per, is the hope...Dennis Morrisseau is a pro-independence candidate for the Vermont Senate, from Pawlet (Rutland County), and organizer of the "Thirty for Senate" 2010 campaign.
Chellis Glendinning: SEXession - Where Are the Women? (FEATURE)
In the end, women may not be the sole proprietors of humanity’s connectedness and caring, but, needless to say, we surely have something essential to offer the work of healing and survival in today’s sad, desperate world...Chellis Glendinning is an advisor to the Second Vermont Republic, a psychotherapist, and the author of five books that explore the “personalness” of the political. She lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Gary Flomenhoft: Vermont’s Message in a Bottle - Bottling Groundwater Rent for Public Revenue (FEATURE)
In evaluating the resources comprising the “Commonwealth” of Vermont, we made a disturbing discovery: Most of the valuable resources in Vermont, including minerals, groundwater, surface water, hydro sites, airwaves, etc., are owned by out-of state corporations. Vermont is a banana republic without the bananas...Gary Flomenhoft teaches energy technology and policy at the University of Vermont.
Letters to the Editor: MUD SEASON 2010 (Vermont, Taxes, Yankee, and More...)
Raising Taxes in Vermont: Sweden’s Chilling WarningEditor, Vermont Commons:
What Vermonters can expect with a Swedish-style healthcare system? With recent budget shortfalls and discussion of raising taxes to fill the gap it appears timely to describe what happened in Sweden as taxes climbed. It is known in Sweden as the great “Brain Drain,” and the country may never recover.
Sucosh Norton: ENVY’able Alternatives - Electrifying A 21st Century Vermont Without Re-licensing Yankee (FEATURE)
It is realistic to think that the generating capacity of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) can be economically, environmentally and cost-effectively replaced in the near term by a diversified strategy of conservation, market purchases, and local renewable resources here...John (Sucosh) Norton is the Chief Operating Officer for NRG Systems, a global leader in the manufacture of wind- measurement equipment, based in Hinesburg. John serves on the Climate Change Oversight Committee for the State of Vermont and has worked in
Carl Etnier: TRANSITION TIMES - Village-building Convergence Brings Transition Town Back to Its Roots
Creating an Energy Descent Action Plan, launching local currencies, organizing energy co-ops: these are all important parts of Transition work....Carl Etnier is director of Peak Oil Awareness in Montpelier. He hosts two radio shows and blogs on the subjects of Peak Oil and relocalizing.
Anne Galloway (Vt.Digger): Behind Bars, For Profit - Should Vermont Continue To Privatize Our Prisons?
The question remaining is whether it will be any different if the physicians and mental health experts are paid, instead, by a profit-taking corporation...Anne Galloway is the editor of vtDigger.org, a nonprofit web-based news journal reporting in-depth on Vermont issues and events.
THE GREENNECK: Disconnection Meditation
Off to Cali for a few days, a work-related trip that promises to be nasty, brutish, and short...‘The Greenneck’ lives and writes in the rusted-out shell of a one-ton Chevy pickup somewhere in Cabot.
Ben Falk: HOMESTEAD SECURITY - Adaptive Design for Climate (and other) Changes
Good design is design for change. Good design is structurally diverse and not dependent on any single element for its overall success...Ben Falk grows food and fuel in the lower Mad River Valley, and develops post-petroleum human habitats with Whole Systems Design, LLC.
Will Lindner: CROSSLOTS - Little House in South Burlington
There’s a little town house in South Burlington where six tons of CO2 isn’t going into the atmosphere anymore. There are houses all over Vermont that emit dozens of tons of carbon. The question that confronts each of us is, where would we rather live? Will Lindner is a mandolin player, writer, and editor living in Barre. He serves as managing editor for Vermont Commons.
Thomas Naylor: VERMONT LIBRE - 350.Org / Copenhagen or Bust
There is a problem with the McKibben paradigm. Politically speaking, it is unbelievably naïve...Thomas Naylor, economist, businessman, and author, is co-founder of the Second Vermont Republic.
Kirkpatrick Sale: DISPERSIONS - Secession Is In The Air
It just feels as if more people are following this line of thinking these days than… than… any time since, say, 1865...Kirkpatrick Sale, editor-at-large and author of a dozen books, including After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination (Duke), is the director of the Middlebury Institute.
MUD SEASON 2010: Singing to Keep the Earth in Business - 1% for the Planet's Sonic Collection (MUSIC REVIEW)
First, go listen at 1%'s music site.