Since President Barack Obama’s re-election last week, there has been dissension stretching from all corners of the country. Some people are thrilled about the outcome, while others are outraged.
To channel this outrage, individuals from all 50 states have started petitions asking to ‘peacefully withdraw from the United States,’ including Wyoming. According to MSN, these petitions, which began on Nov. 11 in Louisiana, are created on whitehouse.org through the “We the People” program. Each state has to reach 25,000 signatures within 30 days before the White House will review the petition.
As of last night, seven states had already achieved that number, according to examiner.com. These states include Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. Texas has by far reached the highest number of signatures, by obtaining more than 100,000.
There have been multiple secession threats in the past, but this one has gathered individuals from every U.S. state.
A large group of states have left the union before and it led to the bloodiest war in American history. The Civil War was violent and led to the popular saying “united we stand, divided we fall.” The states may not always agree, but history has shown us that despite our differences, we need each other.
So, what does this mean for Wyoming? Wyoming has about 7,500 signatures, so it is not presently very close to the benchmark. That being said, Wyomingites are joining the ‘revolution’ and are also trying to get their voices heard.
However, seceding from the union is not the way to accomplish what needs to be done. We the people need to work together to come up with solutions that, by and large, meet the needs of the country’s citizens.
Wyoming would not be successful as its own nation. It has benefits, such as being an energy leader. However it has down falls, such as being landlocked and having a dry climate. Each U.S. state has things that other states need, and vice versa.
On Nov. 6, American’s cast their votes and Obama won, 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. Perhaps if people would try to work with our president rather than fighting him every step of the way, things could actually be accomplished in this country and we could once again become the United States of America.
