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BARRETT RAINEY Second Thoughts |
Here they come again! This time it’s California. Again. But, over the horizon, we could be talking about several counties in Oregon. Again.
The secessionist birds are flying once more in California’s Tehama and Del Norte Counties where they’ll be voting Tuesday - officially, of course - to have county commissioners - they’re called “supervisors†South of our border - push harder to pry certain counties loose to create the State of Jefferson. Butte County folks will deal with the same issue on the 12th. Glenn, Modoc, Siskyou and Yuba have already voted to go - stage right. Far right. And out.
Given how long malcontents in Oregon’s Josephine, Jackson, Douglas and Curry counties have been trying to bring the issue of secession to a vote, this new effort may “juice†them up to try yet again. Wouldn’t be surprised.
At the root of these useless expenditures of time and money is, of course, frustration. Some of it real. Some not so much. A guy named Aaron Funk in Del Norte, makes the “frustration case†for leaving California.
“We have 11 counties up here that share one state senator while Los Angeles has 20 and San Francisco 10 more,†he says. “Essentially, we have no representation whatsoever.â€
There is some tiny, frustrated logic to that. Except for laws requiring equal representation based on nose-counting. One basic point adding to Mr. Funks angst is the real isolation of Northern California from the rest of the folks. The seven counties that have voted to leave - and the others who likely will next week - have a combined geographic area twice the size of New Hampshire but only about 467,000 souls residing. Mt. Shasta and all the redwoods are there along with some of the state’s poorest citizens. Racially, the population is nearly all white.
But Washington and Oregon residents living east of the Cascades could make almost the same case for almost the same reasons. Far from the seats of power, less political representation, lower economic scales and heavily white. So far, they haven’t. Officially.
Siskyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong already wants to pull out. She’s one of the Tea Party secessionists and says there are “too many nanny laws†coming out of Sacramento. (more…)
