seawasp | So, that secession stuff...

A bunch of people have been posting petitions for secession of various states.

In some places, like this site, it's being mistakenly said that the STATES are posting the petition. No. It's just a bunch of citizens, most of whom have no particular standing.

Yo, people out there doing those petitions:

YOU DON'T SECEDE FROM THE UNION. This was settled in the Civil War.

Want to secede? Get your STATE LEGISLATURE to declare it. And then arm yourselves very well, because the Federal government made its position crystal-clear those many years ago. You'll have to make it hard enough to KEEP you that we're willing to let you go.

In some cases, we might be tempted to say "Hey, great, don't let the door hit your a** on the way out, but a country that allows itself to fragment like that is soon no country at all.

So if you want to secede? You waste your time with petitions. Get your governor and your state legislatures to draw up their own Constitution and make a Declaration of Independence (please don't just copy ours; write your own, it looks tacky the other way), and then TELL US you're seceding, and dare the rest of the U.S. Military to stop you.

Because THAT is the only way you're going to actually DO it. By taking us on. By separating families and friends along boundaries, having one set of Americans shoot another set, until one side or the other backs down.

On the other hand, if you're not willing to start another Civil War -- the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history -- stop posturing. It just looks silly.