Bess O’Brien is a filmmaker who lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Her newest film, Shout it Out, is in many ways a collaboration with its cast, a group of teenagers whose thoughts about being young in Vermont helped form the script. The movie will be touring the state this summer. Vermont Commons editor Rob Williams conducted this interview.

VC: Describe the genesis of the Shout it Out, “The Voices Project” movie. Where did the idea come from?

by Jane Dwinell and Dana Dwinell-Yardley

Worried about high gas prices affecting everything from food to fun? Wondering what to do about your summer vacation? Try having one close to home. There are so many things to do in Vermont — so many reasons people from everywhere else to want to visit here. It’s your turn to discover Vermont.

Rob Hopkins' The Transition Handbook is a new, tremendously useful, and inspiring book on how to move, as the subtitle says, "From oil dependency to local resilience."

Richard Heinberg has spent a lot of time visiting Transition Towns in the UK, and he describes the movement as looking "more like a party than a protest march."

And it is a party, not a protest. The Transition Town philosophy is about making change where you are, with the people around you, not pressuring someone else to make the change for you.

Here's one small way this book has helped me:
I give a lot of peak oil slide shows, and I was intrigued by his suggestion for a "do-it-yourself" peak oil slideshow. You create the slideshow by printing up each slide on a piece of 8.5x11 paper, with circles and arrows (or, in any case, a paragraph) explaining the slide on the back of each one, and then hand the cards out to the audience. Each person's job is to meet every other person in the room and explain the slide he or she has. By the time everyone has met everyone else, they have had quite an introduction to peak oil. It really gets people invested in the ideas and helps them get to know each other!

I haven't tried the full DIY slideshow yet, but the idea has inspired me to cut off the final part of my standard slideshow and replace it with a visioning exercise about the future of Vermont. I then ask the audience to break up into small groups and share their visions. The room comes to life when they do it!

Though the book came out in March or so in the UK, it's not scheduled to be distributed in the US until September.* Normally, I try to buy books at local bookstores. This one is too good to wait that long for. You can order it online, with quick and surprisingly inexpensive shipping from the UK.

Ethan Allen lives!

Be sure to catch Jim Hogue's stirring live performance celebrating Vermont's mythical founding father.

Secession is the Answer

Sent by Travis Hannon
Harwood Union High School;
Mad River Valley, Vermont

In 1776 a document was written and signed. This document was a symbol of freedom and liberty, at least for the rich white, land owners. The document was called the United States Declaration of Independence. A year later, in 1777, a Constitution was created. I'm not talking about the United States Constitution, but the Vermont Constitution. It was formed with forward thinking liberal ideas, the same liberal ideas that we need to have today. However, the United States government has lost sight of those ideas, and there is not much hope for them changing.

Rob's Note - I've never much cared for Garrison Keillor's stuff, until I saw last summer's film by Robert Altman (may he rest in peace) about the "Prairy Home Companion."

And now, the man from Minnesota has won my heart. Read on..

40 states is plenty

Who needs Wyoming, Utah, Texas or Vermont? Senate seats should go to states that matter.

By Garrison Keillor

Nov. 15, 2006 | I'm sitting under a banyan tree in Honolulu with a big glass of pomegranate juice, and the sea is glittering and surfers are skimming in on low waves, and the election is over, so let's all relax and quit irritating each other. OK? Nancy Pelosi, the she-wolf from Sodom, is about to become the madam of the House, so you Republicans just get over it. Cash in your blue chips and invest in gold ingots and maybe real estate in Costa Rica. The black helicopters have landed. Live with it.

> Beheaded
>
>
> you barely feel it
> and when it's over
> there's no more fuss
>
> you have new friends
> and can affect a status
> unbefuddled by thought
>
> it's your lucky day really
> you can whirl in absolutes
> and lurch in gratifications
>
> I truly recommend it
> doctors have made reports
> nations have adopted codes
>
> so just stop the bother
> and bend over
> everybody's doing it
>
>
> Peter Buknatski
> Montpelier, Vt. (Over 10 Billion Candles Sold!)
>
>
> This poetic infomercial was brought to you by:
>
> The Department of Homeland Security
> The Republican National Committee

(We do the same things to the planet that we do to women, so what's all the fuss about?)

Global Warming

you're in a mood
now and of course
it is something
I've done

can we work this out?
can we just move on?

I will not change
nor make choices
I am only me

you will show
how you give
and I take

you will threaten
that our time
has run out

and hurl accusations

but I can bear that
it's what I do now
what I've learned

your love was safe

I never thought
we could come
to such a state

there was an eternity

but now you make
demands I cannot
comprehend

Press Conference

I think you seem to
misunderstand what I'm
not really saying in
the context of history
rather than what is no
longer relevant or true.

There is more to look
at beyond what is
obviously supposed.
There is air and there
is emptiness. Shadows
move slowly, if at all.

When was the last time
all hope seceded?
I have no reports
contradicting the studies
made of them. Stones
that gave us signs
have been mislaid.

Should we panic those
already terrified? Can
we torture the sacrifice
on the altar of love?
I have no comment.
Light bothers my eyes
whenever I look.

Book Review:

Rob Williams on Thomas J. DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War

“The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of all the States; in uniting together they have not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. . . . If one of the states chooses to withdraw from the compact, it would be difficult to disapprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly either by force or right.”

Alexis de Tocqueville