Giving up is a part of life.
We’ve all given up something at one time or another. Some of the things we’ve given up have been worth it.
For example, I no longer smoke and I’m proud to say I’ve been potty trained for a couple of years now. Giving up diapers is so freeing.
We also give up things because we think they’re just too hard or because there’s no need to lie to ourselves about them.
I gave up hope that I’d ever be a professional actor because the pond is already too full of potential fish. I also gave up on expecting others to follow through on promises.
But what happens when whole groups of people decide to give up at once? Let’s say 1 million people decided they’ve just had enough of the United States of America, and they wanted to secede. What would they do?
Well, the answer is that they’d write up petitions, submit them on the official webpage for the White House, and then start soliciting signatures. That seems to be the only option these Americans feel they have after Barack’n-round-the-clock-for-four-more-years was elected.
As of the publication of this article, residents from Texas, George, South Carolina, Louisiana, Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio have signed petitions that basically state: “Hey, remember that whole Civil War thing? Yeah. Let’s do that again.”
OK, so the same forces that drove the South to attempt secession in the 19th century differ vastly from the reasons we see today. But no matter what reason, the startling fact is a growing population thinks it would be best to just quit America altogether.
Now I won’t speculate as to why 10 of the 11 states represented are southern. But I would like to know how having a Democrat as president for another term is really affecting these people so much that they feel a revolution is in order.
Every signer of these petitions gets a review of four out of five additional years in history class. They need to know how our country was founded and how things can be fixed.
By the way, I should point out that these secession petitions aren’t formal petitions sponsored by the states themselves. Anyone can start a petition at WhiteHouse.gov.
There’s a section on the White House’s webpage called “We The People,” where citizens can create their own petitions for people to sign electronically.
According to a Nov. 12 Snopes.com article titled “Petition Drive,” even if the petitions garnered outrageous support, Obamanation-indivisible, or anyone in the executive branch for that matter, has no sort of authority to allow a state to secede.
But that hasn’t stopped people from believing they should get to quit America if they want.
I’m fearful that media outlets all over this nation are breeding fear into people that is unfounded. People are jumping the gun and straight to conclusions. Do they think secession will solve any of the problems our country is facing today? Do they think secession won’t create thousands of new problems? I have a sneaking suspicion none of them do.
Let’s pretend just one state managed to successfully secede. The first thing that would be a problem would be money. Any and all federal dollars that are committed to that state would automatically be gone.
Yes, states fund a lot with their own taxes, but that brings up another issue. How many people within a state would actually want to secede and give up American benefits like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and military protection? I’d personally pay off the national debt if you could point me to one state where every citizen would remain as such if it seceded.
People would move out in droves. And with fewer people comes fewer taxes. Fewer taxes means fewer dollars spent on infrastructure, education, police, fire departments, libraries, electricity and water.
But most importantly, the state that secedes will be giving up the protection of our military. In a day and age where every extremist from every culture imaginable is a potential threat, it’s probably not a good idea to start a country that has no armed forces.
Sure, there could eventually be a fully functional military, but that would take years of taxation just to cover training costs, not to mention building bases, aircraft, tanks, weapons and ammunition.
And all for what? Is it because portions of the people find it disheartening that a Democrat was elected to a term that will definitely end in four years? Is it because they think there’s absolutely no way to fix our economy, even though it’s the people who vote in the politicians who are charged with keeping the country running? Is it because they believe our government is too far-gone and can never be fixed, even though we have a Constitution that has a list of changes and additions that’s as long as my 2nd Amendment rights?
Instead of jumping to such extremes, what we need to do is be more proactive as the voters we are. So you don’t like the government? Fine. Vote the politicians out. So you tried that and it didn’t work? Fine. Start a debate with real facts that convince others to vote differently next time.
Protest peacefully. Make valid arguments. Make the change. Just don’t quit.
