by Edd Merritt
February 11, 2010, page 16

“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?”
– Paul Simon

The last two weeks have really disturbed my view of America, its culture and the human condition in general. I saw a perturbing movie and read some reports in the paper that were unsettling. America the Beautiful it ain’t. America the troubled; America the confused; America the downright wrong. Is the country capable of the degree of change that’s needed? Or is it too late? Are we a modern-day British Empire on the verge of collapse?

If you think we’re doing right in Afghanistan, don’t watch the movie, The Hurt Locker. It doesn’t paint a pretty war, which reinforces my conviction that no war is pretty, and monuments honoring them are misguided at best.

However, my friend-across-the-street, Zach Nola, who chose to enlist in the Marines after graduating from college and working in finance, was sent to southwestern Afghanistan to report on military activities there. In a recent article appearing on the DVIDS website he says our forces are moving on the right path by supporting tribal shuras or gatherings of local leaders trying to reach consensus on regional matters. However, it’s a path that carries both benefits and conceals dangers, according to Zach. “While tribal rule is similar to most other forms of government with rules, customs, traditions and village elders acting as leaders, it has presented challenges to Afghan and coalition forces, and the reconstruction effort they support.” Major James Coffman says that the “biggest thing is to help the Afghan people find solutions to Afghan problems.” “We need to see everything through an Afghan lens, and the easiest way is to say, ‘here’s the problem’ and take their advice on how to solve it and then help them facilitate and support them in that process.”

So why do we send warriors to do that? Were I an Afghani asked to advise someone appearing at my tribal meeting dressed in full battle gear, I think I’d be a bit cautious about what I said.

And what about the American cost in this battle against the Taliban? Is it worth even a single life lost, minds irrevocably damaged like those portrayed in The Hurt Locker?

The Afghanistan painted in the movie is reinforced by an article in the February 2 New York Times describing the Taliban’s ability to use common-place things like smoke or doves to signal where our troops are and to plant IEDs where coalition forces are likely to run when they’re in danger. The Taliban doesn’t wear fatigues or bulletproof vests. They come out on the rooftops when American soldiers are in town, along with other curious citizens. And we can’t tell the enemy from the onlookers.

Then to add another absurd measure to the mix, we were confronted with the Washington scene at the State of the Union address, which the New York Times called a “set piece of Washington theater” – and not very creative theater at that. It was a bunch of mostly gray-haired guys in dark suits and red or blue ties, sitting and staring at the podium, then standing and applauding on cue as if none of them had minds of their own – not a shirt from Johnson Woolen Mills among them.

I was flipping through TV channels the other night and stopped on a local channel when I realized the show was an interview with Dennis Steele and Peter Garritano. Steele, the head of Free Vermont Radio, is running for governor, and Garritano from Shelburne, for lieutenant governor, both on the Secessionist ticket. It took me back to my New York City days when author Norman Mailer ran for mayor on a secessionist platform. What Steele says about our country having outgrown its ability to act humanely is beginning to make sense. He and Garritano spoke about it thoughtfully and articulately. (Neither wore a gray suit and red tie, by the way.)

Separation from what has become an empire enlarged to the point where it appears unable to correct its faults through existing political structures may be the change we Vermonters need. One of the criticisms the current federal administration hears from many sides is where is this change you promised us?

Pogo was right. “We have met the enemy and he is us.” If meaningful change is to happen, we the people have to initiate it.

Maybe Vermont as a charter school for secession should assume the lead. Seize the opportunity to experiment. I’d even go so far as saying that if we were to bring back our local congressional delegation, good, smart people whose sense of purpose has been drowned in a political morass of ungovernable dimensions, they could focus locally to help create something dynamic.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
The Times They are A-changin’ – Bob Dylan