Nightline 3/3: Vermonters, their war dead, and old-time democracy

[Bozita]

This has potential.


AN OLD-FASHIONED KIND OF DEMOCRACY

March 3, 2005    


For those of us who don't live in Vermont, there's that picture-perfect image that comes to mind. The sweeping, snow-covered hills, pine trees with a fresh sprinkle of powder and a log cabin with a roaring fireplace. You can't get more American than that. But that's just a postcard. There is real pain underneath that veneer. Vermont is losing its young men and women to the war in Iraq like every other state in the nation. The difference is that per capita, they've lost the most. Their National Guard units have been hit very hard and tonight, you'll watch an exercise in democracy as Vermonters decide to try to do something about it.


Democracy is the big buzzword these days. You hear it, read about it, it may even have slipped out of your mouth on occasion. And it's the focus of the Bush administration's foreign policy. Spread democracy around the Middle East and beyond. We've seen shades of it recently in Lebanon, where people took to the streets to bring about change. They brought their own government down. And they're not done yet. They say they'll keep up the protests until Syria pulls its more than 13,000 troops out of Lebanon. And in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, there have been some small but positive steps as well. Not to mention those democratic elections in Palestine, and of course, Iraq and Afghanistan. It's all happening one step at a time and with a grain of salt. But we don't see many examples of direct democracy on our own streets. I'm not talking about the presidential or congressional elections, but about communities sitting down, talking to each other and making decisions about their own futures. Vermont's annual town meetings this week are the perfect example. Citizens hold them across the state to discuss everything from potholes to this year's hottest topic: The war in Iraq and the soldiers they've lost. Correspondent Mike Cerre was at a few of the meetings and came away with a really interesting slice of American democracy at work.

Mike went on to spend a day with the Vermont National Guard as they train and prepare for possible deployment to Iraq. Mike took the discussions from those town meetings and ran them by some of the Guard members. They talked about the role the National Guard has played in Iraq, their state duties that aren't being dealt with and how they carry out those responsibilities with the country involved in a costly war. They had some really interesting thoughts about duty, sacrifice and community.

Then Ted Koppel talks to Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, who is chairman of the National Governors Association, which just met here in Washington to talk about a range of things, including Iraq.

We hope you'll join us.

Gerry Holmes & the Nightline Staff
Senior Producer
ABC News Washington bureau

[tsuki]

1. Lawyers out there...can Vermonters vote not to send the VT Natl

guard to Iraq? Is it legal and binding?

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Mike Dukakis and Rudi Perpich in the '80's...

...attempted to prevent the use of their states' NG forces for Reagan's adventures in Central America.

Congress closed the loophole in an amendment to the '87 DoD budget. Courts threw out their challenge to the amendment.

In Perpich v. Department of Defense, <21> a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that Congress can "authorize the President to order members of the National Guard to active duty for purposes of training outside the United States during peace time without either the consent of a state governor or the declaration of a national emergency."<22> At issue was the constitutionality of a statute <23> that prohibits state and territorial governors (including the authorities in Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia) from withholding their consent to the federal activation of National Guard units, when the governors' withholding is premised on objections to the "location, purpose, type, or schedule" of the duty. Governor Rudy Perpich of Minnesota had argued that this statute conflicted with the express reservation to the states in the Militia Clause of the "Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress."

Link

My guess is that there's even less chance such a challenge would work today, given we do have a declared national emergency.

[Enquiringkitty]

2. Some Vermont towns voted to bring their troops home. They can't let

Vermont's troops home and set a precedent. Other states would vote to bring their troops home too.

Brings back the old saying from the 60s, "What if they gave a war and nobody came".

By the way, watch out, Governor Huckabee will become the new chairman of the National Governors Association in..... July, I think. The Man is so Republican , you can smell him coming a mile away. He just held a covenant mass wedding in Little Rock and tried to make it harder to get a divorce in the state. He's trying to get state funds and loans and free educational health insurance for illegals to go to school here in Arkansas. He was on a call in program on AETN (public Television) tonight and you should have heard all the calls from teachers, health care workers and employment agencies bringing up all of the problems they have to deal with when it comes to illegals. Finally one man called and asked if it was true that it was a felony to be in this country illegally. Didn't have a good response to why we are giving all of our rights to illegal felons.

[Bozita]

3. airtime in one minute

[Digit]

5. Watching....

bet this will tick me off (big surprise).