It was bound to return. Those of you who are old enough to remember may actually recall the era during the late '60s through the '70s and into the '80s when American cities and towns had their own foreign policies. My clearest memory of my home town, Cambridge, MA., doing something was an action just short of foreign policy. It had to do with Central American refugees. Now, recall that many of these then, as now, were illegals. And, for a sporadic while, the national government was swooping down on these legally almost helpless people. Like some are proposing now. In any case, the city council of Cambridge declared an amnesty for these people, declaring that our jurisdiction was giving them "sanctuary." Many folk in Cambridge felt virtuous. Very virtuous. But, of course, this sanctuary meant absolutely nothing. Cambridge can give no one sanctuary from the feds on federal matters. And then Cambridge declared itself a sister city of Yerevan, capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. (I wrote about this in 1991--archives-only.) This was a result of an alliance between the relative handful of Armenians in the area (mostly anti-communist, even rabidly so) and the large number who, well, thought that the Soviet Union was a pretty damn good place. There were also resolutions making the city (with two great universities and their science faculties) nuclear research free. What do you think was the consequence of this stirring legislation? If I am not mistaken, Cambridge also declared that no genetic research of the sort that Cambridge now loves can be carried on within its borders. Are they borders? Or frontiers? Or maybe cease fire lines? I am glad my memory doesn't include what courageous steps were taken by the town fathers (and mothers) of Berkley, Madison, Ann Arbor, San Francisco etc., etc. Yes, it's starting again. I suppose that it had already started. Just that I didn't notice. This time it seems also to be spreading in Vermont. According to John Donnelly in Wednesday's Globe, Roxbury, Vermont has passed resolutions to bring the troops home and to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. How do you feel about Condi in the succession? Hey, while we're at it, why don't we impeach her, too? The impeachment resolution passed by 42-13. The withdrawal resolution passed by 37-21. Roxbury has 576 residents. This is not exactly a sweeping mandate. The Globe tells us that, before the Civil War, "several [Vermont] towns voted to abolish slavery." Alas, it took that war to end "the peculiar institution."