Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Live Free or Die!

Salon.com News | Long live secession!: “‘We are enmeshed in a global system of conquest and destruction in which Corporate America and the United States government manipulate and control the lives of millions of ostensibly free individuals,’ [secessionist Thomas Naylor] writes in his ‘Vermont Manifesto,’ published in 2003. ‘How many Americans are prepared to die to make the world safe for McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, 747s, gas-guzzling SUVs, the Internet, Bill Gates, and the rest of the Forbes 400 richest Americans?’”

Erm….well, maybe for the Internet. But not for any of those other things. The Internet, though, is one of the very best technological developments of the late 20th century. It’s brought people together in wonderful new ways. Information wants to be free–and the Internet helps that happen. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if not for the Internet. I truly believe that. It’s one of my very favorite means of communication and it’s provided me with knowledge that I might never have otherwise acquired–certainly it’s knowledge that couldn’t have been easily acquired. It’s brought me friendships with people I’ve never met in person. (My friend Bernie, who lives somewhere in Belgium, for example. Hi Bernie!) I’m smarter–and more politically active–because of the Internet. And it’s not just me who has benefited. This would be a fantastic time to be a kid. If I’d had access to the Internet when I was a kid…jeez…I can’t even begin to guess how much I’d have got out of it. It’d have been huge. I was a curious kind of child and spent a fair amount of time reading the encyclopedias we had at home. If we’d had the Internet, though… Wow! Fabulous wealth of information.

Anyway. Enough praise for the Internet.

Let’s talk about secession. Jeez, can you blame people for thinking about it? Or emigration. New Zealand, perhaps–they’ll take people as old as me and Mark–providing we’ve got skills they want. (And Mark does.) I’ve checked it out. It could be do-able.

It’s really disturbing–the direction the United States is headed. Almost half the people in this country believe “creationism” should be taught in the schools. They think homosexuals aren’t entitled to the same civil rights enjoyed by heterosexuals. They’re okay with gutting the environment if it means they can keep driving the mini-van. They think the war in Iraq is a good idea and that it’s making the US a safer place, for Pete’s sake!

I can’t explain that level of stupid. All I can do is rage against it–impotent rage, I suppose. Since secession is likely impossible and emigration would be…really complicated…all I can do is try to persuade people that there are better ways of handling things than what we’re doing now. The Internet–this blog–help me to do that. (I hope.)

So…secession. Do read this salon.com article. (As usual, if you’re not a salon premium member, you’ll need to view an ad before getting to the article.) The author, Christopher Ketcham, does a really fine job of it. He talks about the history of secessionist movements in the US, about Lincoln, about the constitutionality of secession. It’s all very interesting.

A final quote from the salon.com article:

“”Secession is not possible today without violence,” exclaims MIT’s [Pauline] Maier, the author of the acclaimed “American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.” “To assume something different is mad. It’s to follow the example of the Southern secessionists who thought that they could just leave the union peacefully — and, nuttier still, get a part of the unsettled territory as a parting gift. It’s almost as crazy as the idea that once you topple a dictator, democracy happens, much as weeds appear on a plowed field. Isn’t it time that Americans began learning something from history? Or must we again bleed ourselves into wisdom?”"