Greetings from Vermont, home of the B-2 bomber. That’s right: hippy-dippy Vermont; bluest of the blue states, manufactures B-2 bombers. So does gay-friendly Massachusetts. So does California, the host of Hollywood.
Somewhere near you is home of the B-2 bomber, too, if you’re reading this in the U.S. In fact, parts of the B-2 bomber are made in every state of the union. Those defense contractors ain’t stupid. They know the way to keep high-priced weapons systems alive – regardless of whether or not they actually work – is to spread the jobs around. No Congressional representative or senator is going to call for canceling a program that will cost jobs back home. This is what used to be called graft – spread the favors around, cut folks in for a small part of the crooked pie and no one speaks up.
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) just got trundled off to eight years in the federal pokey for taking a couple million in bribes from defense contractors. Mr. Cunningham ordered to government to buy things for the military that the troops did not want and could not use, although things they need, like body armor and steel-plated Humvees, were in short supply. Who blew the whistle on the Duke? The House Ethics Committee? Nope, it was the San Diego Union Tribune. Congress can’t see corruption because it doesn’t want to see corruption, because it’s corrupt, too.
In Vermont (hippy-dippy, bluest-of-blue Vermont), we just marked Town Meeting Day Tuesday, our annual celebration of direct democracy. The town of Newfane voted to impeach George W. Bush.
In Burlington, there are too many of us to meet, so we just vote. One ballot item concerned the local Air National Guard base. As you may have noticed, the National “Guard” is no longer concerned with defending homes and hearths, but is now part of the forward deployment in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Vermont has paid the heaviest toll in the nation, losing more Guard troops in Iraq – on a per capita basis – than any other state in the country.
Some local folks got enough signatures together to put this on the ballot: “Shall the City Council be advised to use all lawful means to keep the men and women of the Vermont Air National Guard at home to provide air defense for the state and nation, and to prevent their deployment to drop bombs in wars of aggression against other nations?”
Sounds, reasonable, no? Many people thought it was unreasonable. Our congressional delegation – Senators Pat Leahy (D) and Jim Jeffords (I), Congressman Bernie Sanders (I), who all voted to oppose giving Mr. Bush the authority to invade Iraq in the first place, advised Burlingtonians to vote against the resolution to keep the Air Guard home. The mayor, the city council, all the “responsible voices” of what may be the most left-wing city in America urged citizens to vote against keeping the Air Guard home.
What gives? The argument from the politicians and “responsible voices” went like this: “This resolution is well intentioned, but the federal government is closing Air Guard bases all the time and if we pass this resolution, then the next time they cut bases, Burlington could well be at the top of the list and that would mean the loss of a couple hundred jobs and that would hurt the local economy.”
In case you’re wondering, this is how George Bush wins, and wins, and wins again. These craven people all but admit Mr. Bush is a bully – that his Pentagon will close bases or leave them open not because the nation’s defense requires such a configuration, but because of political expediency. George Bush is a bully and Messrs. Leahy and Jeffords and Sanders and their ilk are just what a bully needs: spineless wimps.
So, where’s the line? How hard does Mr. Bush have to push us before we push back? After the votes were counted, the majority of Burlingtonians listened to the politicians and defeated the question 5,447 to 4,147. That’s about 57 to 43 percent, not a huge margin.
The candidates for the mayor’s office all opposed the “Take Back the Air Guard” effort, the Republican, the Democrat, the Progressive. They held their first debate a month ago at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue. In front of the synagogue is a sapling. A marker, carved from Vermont granite, says the tree is a tribute to Mark Evnin. Mark’s family belongs to Ohavi Zedek. Mark, a Marine corporal, was the first Vermonter to die in Iraq on April 2, 2003. How many jobs was his life worth?
Home of the Brave?
Greetings from Vermont, home of the B-2 bomber. That’s right: hippy-dippy Vermont; bluest of the blue states, manufactures B-2 bombers. So does gay-friendly Massachusetts. So does California, the host of Hollywood.
Somewhere near you is home of the B-2 bomber, too, if you’re reading this in the U.S. In fact, parts of the B-2 bomber are made in every state of the union. Those defense contractors ain’t stupid. They know the way to keep high-priced weapons systems alive – regardless of whether or not they actually work – is to spread the jobs around. No Congressional representative or senator is going to call for canceling a program that will cost jobs back home. This is what used to be called graft – spread the favors around, cut folks in for a small part of the crooked pie and no one speaks up.
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) just got trundled off to eight years in the federal pokey for taking a couple million in bribes from defense contractors. Mr. Cunningham ordered to government to buy things for the military that the troops did not want and could not use, although things they need, like body armor and steel-plated Humvees, were in short supply. Who blew the whistle on the Duke? The House Ethics Committee? Nope, it was the San Diego Union Tribune. Congress can’t see corruption because it doesn’t want to see corruption, because it’s corrupt, too.
In Vermont (hippy-dippy, bluest-of-blue Vermont), we just marked Town Meeting Day Tuesday, our annual celebration of direct democracy. The town of Newfane voted to impeach George W. Bush.
In Burlington, there are too many of us to meet, so we just vote. One ballot item concerned the local Air National Guard base. As you may have noticed, the National “Guard” is no longer concerned with defending homes and hearths, but is now part of the forward deployment in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Vermont has paid the heaviest toll in the nation, losing more Guard troops in Iraq – on a per capita basis – than any other state in the country.
Some local folks got enough signatures together to put this on the ballot: “Shall the City Council be advised to use all lawful means to keep the men and women of the Vermont Air National Guard at home to provide air defense for the state and nation, and to prevent their deployment to drop bombs in wars of aggression against other nations?”
Sounds, reasonable, no? Many people thought it was unreasonable. Our congressional delegation – Senators Pat Leahy (D) and Jim Jeffords (I), Congressman Bernie Sanders (I), who all voted to oppose giving Mr. Bush the authority to invade Iraq in the first place, advised Burlingtonians to vote against the resolution to keep the Air Guard home. The mayor, the city council, all the “responsible voices” of what may be the most left-wing city in America urged citizens to vote against keeping the Air Guard home.
What gives? The argument from the politicians and “responsible voices” went like this: “This resolution is well intentioned, but the federal government is closing Air Guard bases all the time and if we pass this resolution, then the next time they cut bases, Burlington could well be at the top of the list and that would mean the loss of a couple hundred jobs and that would hurt the local economy.”
In case you’re wondering, this is how George Bush wins, and wins, and wins again. These craven people all but admit Mr. Bush is a bully – that his Pentagon will close bases or leave them open not because the nation’s defense requires such a configuration, but because of political expediency. George Bush is a bully and Messrs. Leahy and Jeffords and Sanders and their ilk are just what a bully needs: spineless wimps.
So, where’s the line? How hard does Mr. Bush have to push us before we push back? After the votes were counted, the majority of Burlingtonians listened to the politicians and defeated the question 5,447 to 4,147. That’s about 57 to 43 percent, not a huge margin.
The candidates for the mayor’s office all opposed the “Take Back the Air Guard” effort, the Republican, the Democrat, the Progressive. They held their first debate a month ago at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue. In front of the synagogue is a sapling. A marker, carved from Vermont granite, says the tree is a tribute to Mark Evnin. Mark’s family belongs to Ohavi Zedek. Mark, a Marine corporal, was the first Vermonter to die in Iraq on April 2, 2003. How many jobs was his life worth?
© Mark Floegel, 2006