FEW days after the celebrated re-election of President Barack Obama, secession threats are already
assailing the political entity called United States (U.S.)
The White House’s ‘We the People’ website is now flooded with pro-secession requests and petitions filed by individuals seeking permission for about 40 states to secede from the political union.
As if making a political statement, the majority of the states asking for secession voted for Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, although petitions were also lodged in Democrat strongholds such as New York and Oregon.
About 23 of such requests featured on the website as at Tuesday, but others have joined the train.
To make the matter serious, petitions filed on behalf of four states – Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas – have reached the 25,000-signature benchmark to warrant a response from the White House, according to agency reports.
According to the website, any petition that draws 25,000 online signatures within 30 days of posting will be reviewed by the appropriate executive department and receive a reply from the White House.
Obama’s re-election last Tuesday had drawn global congratulatory messages, but now in the U.S, not everyone is jumping for joy at the prospect of four more years, according to agency reports.
Tens of thousands have put their names to secession petitions in dozens of such states, asking that they peacefully become independent from the rest of the country.
Aside the four that have reached the relevant benchmarks, petitions were also filed from Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and North Dakota. Others include Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Washington.
The petitioners in Georgia filed twice.
The Alabama petition reads: “We petition the Obama Administration to peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government.”
Most of the requests filed adduced to the founding fathers of the United States of America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“…Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…”
Moreso, most of the petitions have a few thousand signatures.
The right to petition the U.S. government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
If there is enough support, then it is sent to policy experts within the administration.
Other petitions are also currently filed on the website and they include: “We request that Obama be impeached”, “Affirm that State of North Carolina is and will continue to be one of these United States of America”, “Restore objectivity and fairness to our media”, “Officially recognise American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools”, “Regulate internet pornography’ and “Stop the drone strikes” among others.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, raised the idea of secession in 2009, but has since made clear that he has no interest in it.
Also, Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp (Republican) suggested in 2010 that some states might have to “consider separation from this government” should the leadership in Washington not change.
”I hope that the American people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government,” he said.
But according to Wikipedia, secession in the U.S. can refer to secession of a state from the U.S., secession of part of a state from that state to form a new state, or secession of an area from a city or county.
“Attempts at or aspirations of secession from the United States have been a feature of the country’s politics since its birth. Some have argued for a constitutional right of secession and others for a natural right of revolution.
“The United States Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession unconstitutional while commenting that revolution or consent of the states could lead to a successful secession.
“The one serious secession movement was defeated in the American Civil War. In 1860 and 1861, eleven of the fifteen southern states where slavery was legal declared their secession from the United States and joined together as the Confederate States of America. It collapsed in 1865 after losing the war with the northern states.
“A 2008 Zogby International poll revealed that 22 per cent of Americans believed that “any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic,” the Wikipedia states.
Culled from The Guardian
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