In today's Brattleboro Reformer John Curran wrote an article titled, "Secession movement gets legs." This couldn't be further from the truth. The Second Vermont Republic is a movement with the hope that someday, somehow, the state of Vermont will secede from the United States "empire." OK. Cool. But this movement has some major skeletons in the closet that people need to be aware about.
A blogger at Green Mountain Daily along with another who goes by the alias, Thomas Rowley, dug a little deeper on the steering committee of the Second Vermont Republic and what they found were members who had ties to southern organizations with racist pasts.
What resulted were some weird responses from committee member and independent media activist Rob Williams. Williams acts as their PR person and instead of issuing a, "Oh my God, why didn't we know this beforehand," Williams said .... "Is he a racist? I don't know. And frankly, it is none of my damn business, at a personal level."
Second Vermont Republic co-founder, Tom Naylor, did a vicious smear campaign against John Odum, a Green Mountain Daily blogger when all he did was ask some honest questions about who they choose to affiliate with. What resulted was a group of individuals left the Second Vermont Republic called the "Green Mountain Collective" stating they would not be in a movement that had individuals tied to racist organizations like the League of the South and individuals who are neo-capitalists that do not support a worker-related movement encompassing tenets of labor justice (among other issues as well). The Second Vermont Republic has not responded since, the founding members of the Second Vermont Republic with ties to racist orgnanizations remain, and most of all, THE MOVEMENT IS ALL HYPE AND GOOD PR.
For all the information on their sordid past and lack of principled response to the problem, check out Vermont Secession blogspot. You'll also find in the blog that in previous polls on secession, they hid the specs and mislead the public.
For more good stories on this controversy check out the following:
http://fivebeforechaos.com/2007/02/23/second-vermont-republic-cover-story-in-the-guardian/
And my favorite, what the Second Vermont Republic would do to the Vermont economy.
Next time the Reformer should do their homework before they write what a great organization they claim to be.