Whether or not you agree with the outcome of this year’s presidential election, you probably wouldn’t consider initiating a petition for your state’s secession from the Union. However that was the exact reaction from the internet face of “Micah H” from Arlington Texas.
Three days after the November 6th election, a section appeared on the petition section of the White House website. The petition reads:
“Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.”
Although the petition does not state any specific names or reasoning behind request regarding the election, one can deduce that it was this Texas citizens’ political views that sparked the proposition.
Despite the proposal for the state to become separate, the United States government, nor the rest of Texas, would not allow it to happen. The United States gets most of its in-country natural gas from Texas and without that the United States would have to turn to other countries for pricier supplies; causing the United States to be spending more money than present day.
Only 118,518 people have signed the petition on the White House website. Although the amount of people who would support leaving the union is large, the population of Texas is way higher than the amount of people signing the petition. As of 2012, according to the Texasstate.gov, the population is 24,403,743. This amount of signatures is equivalent to less than 1% of the texas population.
As history teacher Mr. Gillespie said, “it benefits them more to stay, clearer heads will prevail even though they are under the protection of a 10 gallon hat.”
Despite the unpopularity of the petition, and their 10 gallon cowboy hats, if the petition was to pass, the problems posed by the petition would be tough to handle, including the oil and how the NASA space station would be dealt with.
“It would be interesting to see how the NFL would deal with the Texans and the Cowboys as far as continuing to be teams,” said junior Hannah Leeping.
Not that the proposal has sparked too many problems within our government, it is a thought provoking question as to how our country would function without Texas. As it would not be allowed by our government for the time being, it is nothing to worry about for the near future, Texas will remain a state in the union.