Just came from the Ripton Town Meeting. Folks are uneasy. We have excellent management, excellent intentions, great visions… but we’re having the life sucked out of us by the US Empire: its wars, racism, cruelty and waste of human potential.
And there’s the rub. How can we achieve a green, peaceful Vermont, within such an Empire?
Our State representative gave us some unfortunate numbers from the State budget. I confronted him with the actual numbers, already presented to the Legislature, which show a $1.2 billion a year give-away to huge corporations. This puts the entire tax burden squarely on people who work for a living, and small-to-medium size business. Of course there’s a crisis, but the crisis is entirely unnecessary. His reply was to plead ignorance of the situation.
A very brave lady then spoke up, declared that ‘it is not about numbers, it is about real people’. I bow to her on this essential fact.
Our management are excellent, yet they have failed us. They need to decide whether their loyalty is to the Empire, or to their people in Vermont. Choose the Empire, and they must be confronted and voted out. Most are Democrats, whose opposition to the Bush wars fell silent the moment the Bush wars became Obama’s even bigger wars, and our Guard were federalised and sent off to Afghanistan.
How much sacrifice can we endure? How long will our representatives ask us to turn our backs on the needy, cutting programs and care to those who can least afford to lose it, before we say ‘Enough is Enough’?
Here’s an excellent video essay: The Green Mountain State has championed many progressive causes and elected a socialist Senator. But it’s still part of an uneasy empire, and some people want out of the “big muddy.”
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