Ouch! SEVEN DAYS Dumps VTCommons!
There's been so much said about Second Vermont Republic and it's ties to racist groups like the League of the South that I thought it best to take a breather and sort of let the dust settle. I also thought that given a some time to reflect, SVR and its sister organization, "Vermont Commons", might reconsider its arrogant insistence on maintaining such ties.
Well, no such luck. In fact, they've added a link to the separatist, homophobic, neo-Confederate extremist group, Christian Exodus, another group with strong historic ties to the LoS leadership. [1]
That intransigence hasn't been without consequence. First, this letter appeared in yesterday's issue of Seven Days:
‘COMMONS’ COURTESY?"Stumbled?" Refusing to get out of bed with racists and bigots isn't what an average Vermonter would call a "stumble." It's more like jumping off a cliff. 'Course, the spinmeisters VTCommons and SVR, architects of the famous "Don't Ask, Don't Care" about racism strategy, as well as being well practiced subscribers to the "Racists? What Racists?" dodge, might have called such a jump "stepping out for some air."
What’s up with Seven Days? I understand you agreed to distribute Vermont Commons throughout this year. (I’m an occasional contributing editor.)
Second Vermont Republic is still an infant organization that recently stumbled. The response by everyone has been to kick them out the door and roll them down the hill.
The affiliated publication, Vermont Commons (which has been working hard with few resources to raise a very worthwhile and necessary conversation), has been penalized by you — and summarily dumped.
It seems a shame to me. And also, dishonorable.
Jacqueline Brook
PUTNEY
Here's the Seven Days reply:
SEVEN DAYS RESPONDS:O-kay. And that "confusion" wasn't readily apparent when the insert was initially accepted? Sorry ladies but that just doesn't pass the smell test. You've done the right thing by ending the connection to such a clueless group of people but that sort of equivocation is, as Jacqueline Brook might say, shameful and dishonorable. I guess she had one thing right.
The reason we’ve decided to stop accepting Vermont Commons as an insert has nothing to do with any controversy surrounding its associate organization, the Second Vermont Republic. It’s because the publication, complete with ads, confused readers who thought it was a part of Seven Days. So as not to leave Vermont Commons in the lurch, we agreed to accept one final insertion of the publication. It appears in this week’s paper.
posted by Thomas Rowley @ 10:45 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Great to see you return Rowley.
Keep this blog going. It seems the SVR keeps shooting itself in the feet and it's entertaining.
It's a shame they've taking such a great idea on secession and taken it all down the shitter with these idiots they choose to associate with.
i also posted this in another part of the blog - sorry this would have been the better spot. thanks
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dear mr. rowley
thanks for your excellent blog. my name is marc awodey, and i do consider myself a vermont secessionist, and have been for perhaps 25 years. however i think the goal of withdrawing from the united states, may take 100 more years, and be the result of the same sort of centrifugal forces which dissolved the soviet union. nevertheless i do think certain concrete steps could be initiated by secessionists, given the times we now live in. unfortunately, the SVR has totally discredited it’s self with it’s adherence to the 9/11 “truth” fad, and the growing paranoia of Dr. Naylor, Mr. Hogue and others.
I am not savvy enough to launch a secessionist alternative to the well financed and well organized sites of the SVR and vt commons, but a sensible alternative definitely seems needed. the pseudo intellectualism of vt commons is rife with logical fallacies and non sequiturs that make for mind numbing reading - devoid of honesty, passion - and especially dialog with common citizens asking serious questions. And i do think it's self evident that the SVR leadership has many hidden agendas detrimental to stated goals.
please feel free to contact me if the notion of breaking free of SVR hegemony in the secessionist discussion- seems worth considering, and perhaps acting upon. i’d be interested in discussing this idea with you or any of your readers who might agree that eventual secession is possible... if vermonters approach the issue with hope and optimism for our independant future, rather than a torrent of vitriol for the united states.
thanks again for your good work.
marc awodey
burlington
ps- i am the art critic of seven days, and their stated reason for dropping vt commons is quite true - it didn't anticipate circulating a publication competing for advertisers. and no - it wasn't apparent when accepted. vt commons rather duplicitously started saying it had a circulation of 35,000 - the same as seven days - once it became an insert, to sell it’s own competing ads. the 7D publisher’s statement was actually rather generous...
Thanks for both your comments.
Rather than appropriately address the issues and concerns raised here and elsewhere, SVR, Thomas Naylor, Rob Williams and their enablers have sought to demonize, toss out, and/or directly harm in some way everyone, no exceptions, who doesn't subscribe in a lock-step way to their take on rubbing shoulders and finding common cause with racists, Lincoln, the latest 9/11 conspiracy theory, peak oil, etc.
I thought that secession was worthy of discussion but was troubled by what I had learned about SVR's associations. Correct that - their now committed associations with racists and white separatists, as well as to religious extremists. Their contempt for Vermonters like Pat Leahy or Bernie Sanders (remember, Naylor went nuclear on them only after he learned they wouldn't join his dog & pony show, not before) while paling around at conventions with bigots who have spoken of using railcars to "cleanse" the South of unwanted residents tells me all that I need to know about them.
Naylor's been in cahoots with the racist LoS at least since the days of the ill-fated Southern Party in the early 90's. He then thought he could con the "rubes" here into being the good face of the secession movement. That plan is dead.
We all had to wake up. That included 7Days. That doesn't mean that people have to stop talking about secession. But until SVR, VTCommons and their supporters come clean and stop obfuscating, they'll probably be irrelevant. Their time to wake up has long passed. They've set back the discussion and they should apologize.
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