If 22 national petitions filed on Whitehouse.gov, and an article today in the Concord Monitor are any indicator, discussion of the concept of secession is spreading rapidly through the minds of many in the United States. The Examiner reports that as of Monday, 22 states have a number of people circulating petitions for recognition of potential independence on the White House’s official petitioning website. While these numbers are currently in the hundreds and low thousands, the recognition of the legitimacy of the concept seems to be reaching a high water mark, and could continue swelling.
Ben Leubsdorf has penned two article’s in today’s Monitor about individuals making major movement with their feet, both into and out of New Hampshire. He reports on the expatriation of Frank Szabo, the controversial candidate for sheriff of Hillsborough County. Szabo announced early in his candidacy for the republican nomination that he had interest in protecting the sovereignty of New Hampshire from unconstitutional federal law enforcement actions. His campaign crashed and burned when he advocated enforcing non-existent laws against abortion seekers and providers. He announced Sunday on his facebook page that he had recently relocated to South America, where he plans to enjoy the remainder of his days. Currently in Chile, he states that he hopes to see extended family and friends in the future, though that may require that they voyage to visit him. He also announced in his facebook post that the IRS has seized $36,000 from him.
It is quite interesting to note that issues, which we’ve been fighting with the IRS for years, just happened to be “resolved” last month as the IRS yanked over $36,000 from our bank account with no due process or judicial oversight. Coincidence?
Since 1994, it has been US policy to shame expatriates by publishing their names, but not the total number, requiring statistics organizations to calculate themselves. Since 2008, federal law has called for the seizure of all property of expatriates in the name of earning their potential tax value had they stayed in the United States and lived out their lives paying taxes. The US is one of the only nations that does this, as the Soviet Union used to, and North Korea probably would, if anyone were actually permitted to expatriate, but does not officially. Coincidentally, Chile has some of the most restrictive statutes against voluntary abortion in the world.
The other article in the Monitor about responsive political movement overviews the budding Foundation for New Hampshire Independence. The organization, founded in September, seeks to educate residents of New Hampshire on the benefits of voluntary secession. The article features quotes from Neal Conner, one of the organization’s board members, who moved to New Hamshire in 2009 as a Free State Project participant. “There’s a difference between what’s a right and what those people in Washington, DC, may think is legal. Regardless of whether or not the federal government may recognize that right, as individuals we do have that right for local self-determination.”
The focus on the importance of self-determination underscores the most basic principle of any secession or decentralization of power. Secession is fundamentally a smaller unit of a whole voluntarily ending its official relationship with the other part or parts. In the same way a damaged plant’s trimmings may take root on their own, so too can an independent people emerge from the slave yoke of debt and warfare that the central government has been forcing on the people of the Americas to toil over and export around the world. The chains are cast off as each individual mind decides that they will cease providing their obedience and financial support to the empire.
With UN recognized secession occurring internationally, the context through which the average person has secession framed for them is mellowing. In the US, schoolchildren are taught at a young age about secession’s association with slavery, war, and violence, and seldom are exposed to other examples.
Blowback from Uncle Sam’s Minions
In response to secession trending, Douglas H of Escondido, California created a WhiteHouse.gov petition to strip the citizenship of every person who signs a secession petition and ‘exile them’. This petition has 3,495 signatures at the time of publication. Isn’t it wonderful that the United States is such a free nation that you can advocate for the robbery, kidnap, and export of your neighbors under the guise of law enforcement?
Meanwhile, continuing reports of self-immolations by young people in Tibet to protest authoritarian Chinese rule are being blamed on the Dalai Lama and exiled Central Tibetan Administration by rulers in Beijing.
Nov 17 2012: Harry Cheadle of Vice magazine has published an article that could be seen as an endorsement of the idea of secession. Check out Why Not Let All the States Secede From the US?
This article was originally published at freeconcord.org.
