Border town split by post-9/11 fears
Al Jazeera, 12/8
With the border cutting right through town, residents now have to worry about border patrol agents responding if they cross their backyard fence or turn down the wrong street.
Derby Line is a town straddling the Vermont/Canadian border.
Only four years ago:
A quiet imperiled on Vt.-Canada line
Boston Globe
Canadians and Americans borrow books and watch plays side by side at the library, which was deliberately built half in one country and half in the other. No guards are stationed on the quiet, shady streets around the building, and Canadians who cross into Vermont to enter the library do not need to show their passports at a border station, as they do when crossing for any other purpose. Inside the library, where a strip of black tape on the floor marks the international boundary, patrons wander unchecked between the two countries on their way from the stacks to the birch-paneled reading room.
Officials assured residents that if the streets were closed, pedestrians could still pass freely to and from the library, without checking in at the port of entry. They showed photographs of attractive flowerpots that could serve as barriers. Still, most people at the meeting were unconvinced. Some bristled with anger.
Attractive flowerpots? Oh, our lost days of innocence.
Despite their having banned me from Daily Kos, the folks over there continue to send me occasional email from Markos entreating me to sign various online petitions. This seems a bit over the top already, but today I got one that really took the cake – asking me to support their good work by subscribing to the site.
