Link: http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1957743,00.html&ct=ga&cd=ZM12yBr20Nc&usg=AFQjCNGkWwXRSrLAz29jahNIYLLe1Rl36Q

The President on Wednesday may have reassured Americans that the state of the Union is "strong," but, just the week before, a group of Vermont secessionists declared their intention to seek political power in a quest to get their state to quit the Union altogether. On Jan. 15, in the state capital of Montpelier, nine candidates for statewide office gathered in a tiny room at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, to announce they wanted a divorce from the United States of America. "For the first time in over 150 years, secession and political independence from the U.S. will be front and center in a statewide New England political campaign," said Thomas Naylor, 73, one of the leaders of the campaign.