A group living near the California-Oregon border is fed up with both states and wants to secede to create the 51st state, the “State of Jefferson.”
The movement is not just a modern one:
“Talking about secession has been a quasi-joking conversational saw since 1941, when five counties in the area started things by actually declaring themselves – briefly – to be the state of Jefferson. But now, with the economy in trouble and unemployment soaring, the idea of greater independence is getting its most serious consideration since World War II.
The residents of the 12 California and Oregon counties have legitimate gripes with big government and specific plans on how they could do it all better:
Locals complain that federal and state regulators have hampered the fishing and timber industries to protect forestlands and endangered species such as sucker fish and the spotted owl. Jobs are so scarce that the median income in the area is only two-thirds that of the rest of the state. Most water from the rainy Shasta region is shipped south, with little economic benefit to the area. Even the California sales tax draws sneers.
If they ran their own state, the reasoning goes, folks in Siskiyou, Modoc and the other potential Jefferson counties could whack the red tape from both federal and state officials and get rid of the sales tax.
In a statement that shows these counties are right on with their criticisms of the state governments being out of touch with their concerns, Gov. Schwarzenegger says he’s never heard of them before:
“‘Never heard of Jefferson,’ said Aaron McLear, spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. ‘We are going to decline comment.’”
To those who might think that the state of Jefferson will be another Puerto Rico, living off federal government handouts, one Jeffersonian assures:
“We aren’t looking for handouts. We want to utilize our resources wisely, especially the renewable ones. We have power; water, wood fueled, geothermal, solar wind, bio diesel and algea. We can make a living from good honest work, not by confiscating dollars through taxes, user fees etc.
Our government would be lean and mean; A government of by and for the people.”
That would certainly be a new concept for America today. Good luck to them.
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Shelley Loughner
September 28th, 2011