President Obama has not even been sworn in for a second term and already the people of the United States are throwing a temper tantrum. While most people take to the internet to bash and complain, a couple of our fellow “Americans” have taken to the site petitions.whitehouse.gov in an attempt to say “I quit” and secede from the United States.
When the website launched, the White House promised to take a look at the petitions, which reached over 25,000 signatures. They did not decide to pursue this because they will grant the petition’s wish, but they would take a look and either respond or take steps to solve the issue.
The types of petitions that end up never being addressed include banning certain people from the United States, legalizing marijuana in certain states or counties and asking for Obamacare to cover more than just necessary medication and surgeries.
The secession petitions have the same rules and get the same attention and because the White House wants to be good-spirited, they will address the petitions that hit the signature mark.
However, there is no legal way to secede from the U.S.—it has failed every time it has been attempted.
On a smaller scale, the San Fernando Valley attempted to become its own county from Los Angeles in the ‘70s. The Valley was much better off financially than most of the states that filed for secession and in an ideal place to become its own entity, but still failed.
This situation has gotten uncomfortable because the first states that petitioned for secession were the southern belt states and newspapers started referring to the U.S. as “the Union” instead of the United States.
With the count of states that have been mentioned on the White House website up to 36, it is time to say enough is enough. Secession from the United States is unconstitutional and can be seen as an act of treason.
The South attempted that when the Civil War was going on; it did not work out too well for their citizens, not to mention the economic, militant and social atmosphere. But with the stupidly serious comes the hysterically sarcastic as well. After the secession numbers reached an absurd amount, a new petition was started.
Created Nov. 12, the petition asks for the deportation of everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the U.S. It has gathered over 25,463 signatures to date. Now while some people giggle at this petition, it is possible for the U.S. to strip American citizenship from a citizen, the most recent one took place in December 2010.
It is great that the people that started these petitions are using an extreme to get the Obama administration’s attention, but anything beyond that is just laughable. It is not possible to secede and the fact people are being so dramatic is something to be concerned about.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.
