Bait & Switch

Despite 2007 having been a God-awful year for Thomas H. Naylor's Second Vermont Republic, Naylor has started off this new year with another stab at salvaging something from his plan to use Vermont as the front man for his phony assertion that secession advocates hail from across the political spectrum and are united, notwithstanding their many differences. The Thomas H. Naylor "Blue State/Red State" pretense continues, this time in the form of his revamped Vermont Independence Day celebration:

VERMONT INDEPENDENCE DAY BANQUET
The Vermont Village Green: Alternative to Empire
Speakers: Kirkpatrick Sale & Stephen Morris
January 15, 2008
Montpelier, Vermont

On January 15 the Second Vermont Republic will host a banquet at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier celebrating Vermont Independence Day. The celebration will begin with a reception (cash bar) at 6:00 P.M. followed by a buffet dinner at 7:00 P.M. and talks by Kirkpatrick Sale and Stephen Morris at 8:00 P.M. The theme of the celebration will be “The Vermont Village Green: Alternative to Empire.” Music will be provided by guitarist Xander Naylor.

Kirkpatrick Sale is Director of the Middlebury Institute and author of After Eden, Human Scale, and numerous other books.

Stephen Morris is Publisher of the Public Press, Editor of Green Living Journal, and author of The New Village Green among other books.

In Vermont village greens are small communities devoted to life, liberty, land, and locality rather than death, doom, and destruction of the planet earth. They are an integral part of the Vermont mystique. America could use a lot more village greens and far fewer cruise missiles, 747s, and SUVs. It needs a new metaphor, an alternative to empire. Vermont stands ready to provide such a metaphor, the Vermont village green.

For reservations send your check for $35 to P.O. Box 544, Charlotte, Vermont 05445 or call 802-425-4133.

We invite you to join our genteel revolution of thoughtful citizens committed to saving Vermont, America, and the rest of the world from the American Empire by leading our nation into peaceful disunion.

The only other promotion of this event that I can find, other than at Naylor's own SVR web site, is a post at Alex Linder's infamous Vanguard News Network .   Last year's Vermont Independence Day event was promoted extensively by both SVR and its sister organization, "Vermont Commons".   So far this year there hasn't been a peep out of VTCommons about the event, nor is it listed as a sponsor as it was last year.   What a difference a year can make, eh?

What you won't learn from Thomas Naylor's Vermont Independence Day Banquet announcement is that he's also scheduled a simultaneous event in conjunction with the banquet called the North-South Secession Summit.   In addition to Kirkpatrick Sale and others, unnamed white wing leaders from the racist League of the South are to be fêted:

North-South Secession Summit
January 14-15, 2008
Charlotte, VT

Following on the heels of the highly successful Second North American Secessionist Convention, which took place in Chattanooga, TN in October, leaders of four secessionist organizations will meet in Charlotte, VT on January 14 and 15 to develop strategies for maintaining the momentum of the emerging national secession movement.

The North-South Secession Summit meeting will include senior representatives from the Middlebury Institute, the League of the South, the Southern National Congress, and the Second Vermont Republic. Recognizing that the American Empire is immoral, illegal, unsustainable, ungovernable, and unfixable, these secessionists have called for the peaceful dissolution of the United States of America. Through a “Genteel Revolution” they hope to help save America and the rest of the world from the American Empire.

The Vermont Secession Summit is being held in conjunction with the celebration of Vermont Independence Day in Montpelier on the evening of January 15. There will be a banquet that evening at the Capitol Plaza Hotel beginning at 6:00 p.m.

For information about the Secession Summit or reservations for the Vermont Independence Day dinner, contact Thomas H. Naylor, 802-425-4133.

BTW, Kirkpatrick Sale is this year's recipient of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Weirdest Political Alliance Award:

Weirdest Political Alliance Award
The honors here go to Kirkpatrick Sale, director of the New York-based Middlebury Institute, dedicated to secessionism. Known for decades as a left-wing intellectual, Sale last year buddied up to the white supremacist League of the South (LoS) — a group that opposes racial intermarriage, defends segregation, and calls for a return to “European cultural hegemony” in the South — to the point of actually co-sponsoring the Oct. 3-4 Second North American Secessionist Convention in Tennessee with the LoS. Now, the left-right love affair promoted by Sale has turned positively torrid, with a “North-South Secession Summit” planned for January. Attending will be top officials of the Middlebury Institute, LoS, the Southern National Congress, and the Second Vermont Republic, to seek “the peaceful dissolution” of the United States.

After last year's uproar when this blog, along with other Vermont blogs, exposed Thomas H. Naylor's decades long close ties to white supremacist groups, it should come as no surprise that our magnolia Vermonter isn't also telling prospective attendees to his Vermont Independence Day Banquet who else he's inviting to dinner.

In his banquet announcement, Naylor claims that the night's theme is "the celebration (of) “The Vermont Village Green: Alternative to Empire.”   The criminal, racist leadership at League of the South that unsuspecting Vermonters may meet at the banquet are hardly the type of people that you'd normally find on a Vermont village green.   The AP photo to the right is from a "visit" that the LoS made to the Civil Rights Memorial (dedicated to 40 who were slain during the years of the civil rights struggle 1954 thru 1968 and located on the SPLC grounds) three years ago on the day that a funeral was being held for the mother of the Southern Poverty Law Center's founder, Morris Dees.   The teen racing about with the Confederate flags is shown doing so around the memorial upon which the names of those slain are etched. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Nice bunch, Tom.   Little wonder you're embarrassed to let Vermonters know who you'll have tricked them into breaking bread with that night.