Michael Smith

Vermont’s Declaration of Independence (1777)

Vermont's Declaration of Independence (1777)

To the honorable convention of representatives from the several towns on the west and east side of the range of Green Mountains, within the New-Hampshire grants, in convention assembled. Your committee to whom has referred the form of a declaration, setting for the right the inhabitants of said New-Hampshire grants …

Read More »

The Kairos Radical Imperative

The Kairos Radical Imperative

Kairos: A Greek word for a very special time fraught with decisive consequences for good or evil when momentous things are happening, new possibilities arise, more degrees of freedom emerge, and the opportunity to seize the moment appears.  A time for renewal and nonviolent action when the forces of light rise …

Read More »

Neoliberalism: Neoconservatism Without a Smirk

Neoliberalism: Neoconservatism Without a Smirk

It has become increasingly obvious that the only difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush is that the famous Bush smirk has been replaced by the Obama smile.  The neoconservatism of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Bill O’Reilly has given way to the neoliberalism of Bill Clinton, Timothy Geithner, …

Read More »

History of the Second Vermont Republic

History of the Second Vermont Republic

Nearly three years before I moved to Vermont, on October 9, 1990, the Bennington Banner published my article entitled “Should the U.S. Be Downsized?”  Four years later in Challenge(Nov.-Dec. 1994) I wrote: “The time has come both for the individual states and the federal government to begin planning the rational downsizing …

Read More »

Independent Kosovo? Why Not Vermont?

Independent Kosovo? Why Not Vermont?

Sean Connery thinks the Scottish nation is a bonnie notion. How about Spain’s Basque country becoming a REAL country? And what’s wrong with a People’s Republic of Vermont? Kosovo‘s looming independence raises all those questions and more. For starters: Why is statehood OK for some people but frowned on for …

Read More »

Americans Rediscover the Right of Self-Determination

Americans Rediscover the Right of Self-Determination

After a hiatus of nearly 150 years following the Civil War, over a million Americans have recently rediscovered the word secession, one of the most toxic, politically incorrect words in American English.  Never mind the fact that our nation was actually born out of secession from England back in 1776. Since …

Read More »

Website ADA Compliance: A Beginners Guide

Website ADA Compliance: A Beginners Guide

If you aren’t already aware, the ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was enforced several decades ago as a way of preventing discrimination against disabled people. Their policy states that disabled people should have full or equal access to the enjoyment of goods, services, privileges, advantages or …

Read More »

Should You Take a Job if You Don’t Like the Boss?

Should You Take a Job if You Don’t Like the Boss?

You invest a great deal of energy at work, and there’s a good chance that you don’t like your boss. If that is the case, those hours can feel long, baffling, and undesirable. Not coexisting with your director is unpleasant – who needs to leave work feeling as if they …

Read More »

Obituary Notice for Vermont/National Press Outlets Thomas H. Naylor, Founder of the Second Vermont Republic

Obituary Notice for Vermont/National Press Outlets Thomas H. Naylor, Founder of the Second Vermont Republic

Dubbed “Tom Paine for the 21st Century” by Utne magazine’s Jay Walljasper, Thomas H. Naylor (1936-2012) of Charlotte, Vermont was Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University, as well as a writer and a political activist. He passed away on December 12, 2012, after complications resulting from a stroke, and is survived by his wife …

Read More »

George F. Kennan: Godfather of the Vermont Independence Movement

George F. Kennan: Godfather of the Vermont Independence Movement

With the publication of John Lewis Gaddis’s new book George F. Kennan:  An American Life(Penguin Press, 2011), the name of the former dean of the American diplomatic corps is once again on the national radar screen.  When George F. Kennan died on March 17, 2005, at the age of 101, few …

Read More »
Sahifa Theme License is not validated, Go to the theme options page to validate the license, You need a single license for each domain name.