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Dreaming Vermont’s Destiny: Crafting Position/Options Papers on Self-sufficiency, Sustainability and Sovereignty

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Small-Mart Revolution author Michael Shuman gave a fascinating talk at the Vermont statehouse the other day.

We've compressed it and hosted it at YouTube - follow the first part below to the whole talk.

Shuman is full of good ideas for decentralizing our economic life.

His talk is worth watching, and you can find out more at his web site.

John Michael Greer  wonders whether the Transition Town Movement is engaging in "premature triumphalism." As a part of the initiating group in Transition Town Montpelier, which on Tuesday received official recognition from the international transition folks, I doubt it.

We're happy if people even notice what we're up to.

Luckily, there's a chance Monday for everyone in the central Vermont area to find out more about Transition Towns and judge for themselves. Naresh Giangrande, co-founder of the first Transition Town, Totnes in the UK, will speak on “Transition Towns: From Oil Dependency to Resilient Communities.” The talk is Monday, November 24, 7 pm. Unitarian Church, Main Street, Montpelier. We're being contacted by people as far away as Maine and Massachusetts who want to hear the talk, so come early!

Greer provides a nice summary of the Transition Town movement:

We hosted Chellis Glendinning, Kirkpatrick Sale and Thomas Naylor in the WDEV studio today.

Quite a conversation - listen to the podcast here.

And we remember the close to thirty Vermont soldiers who have fallen in battle in foreign lands these past five years, courtesy of the U.S. Empire.

On this Veterans Day.

There's a fight brewing in the U.S. House over who will chair the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next session. Michigan Representative John Dingell now holds the chair. California Representative Henry Waxman wants it.

According to Frank O'Donnell at Gristmill, the battle is decades old between Waxman, who wants more regulation for clean air, and "Tailpipe Johnny" Dingell, who apparently thinks clean air regulations would hurt the auto industry in his home state.

Peter Welch told me Friday he supports Waxman. If Congress and the Obama administration are to move quickly on meaningful climate change legislation, it sounds to me like Waxman is the far better choice.

Waxman now chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Welch serves on.

What follows are my remarks given in the statehouse legislative chambers for the Vermont independence convention.

Here's how we vote in Waitsfield. Very sophisticated. Cutting edge. Not to be believed. Don't try this at home. You'd be much better off with high-tech machinery and proprietary software provided by large faceless corporations, especially if they work hand-in-glove with political party operatives.

The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public
debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. - Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C. –

People should not fear their governments. Governments should fear their people.
- V for Vendetta, 2005 -

Author’s note: I had planned to write a follow-up to Exponential Money in a Finite World (published in Vermont Commons,
Fall 2008), where I would continue to make the case that our financial
system is incompatible with reality and is due either for collapse or a
major overhaul over the next 20 years – max. National events have
obviously overtaken the publication schedule, so I will instead focus
on the recent bailout and what this means to each of us over the next
one-to-two years.

Editor’s note: Christopher Ketcham contributes to GQ, Vanity Fair,
Harper's and many online publications. He is writing a book on American
secessionism. This letter first appeared in the Los Angeles Times on
September 10, 2008, and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Editor, Vermont Commons:

Sarah Palin's secessionist sympathies sparked minor hysteria last week.