May
15, 2013
Edward
H. Sebesta
President
Barack H. Obama
The White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear
Hon. President Obama:
As
widely reported in the press, nearly a million people had signed secession
petitions at the whitehouse.gov website by December 10, 2012. By their very definition these petitions are
a complete rejection of American ideals and they seek to damage the
country. Why are these petitions not
viewed as offensive or odious?
Further
secessionism has made inroads to mainstream politics. In Minnesota at the 2010 2nd
Congressional District Republican convention a resolution that a state had a
right to secede came within two votes of passage, “but only after Sutton, who
was functioning as the convention’s chair, reminded his fellow Republicans that
opposition to secession by states was a founding Republican principle in the
late 1850s.”[1]
However, about two weeks later the Minnesota 5th Congressional
District Republican convention did pass a resolution both supporting
nullification and endorsing “secession as options to enforce state
sovereignty.”[2]
Perhaps
because they had listened too many times to the Charlie Daniels Band song, “The
South is Gonna Do It Again,” in 2009 the Georgia State Senate passed resolution
SR632, conditionally calling for both nullification and secession by a margin
of 43-1.[3]
Tennessee Congressional Rep. Zach Wamp brought up secession as a response to
health care legislation in 2010.[4]
Former Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin spoke to the Alaska Independence
party which wishes that Alaska secede from the Union.[5]
Then
there is the now widely known statement of Texas Governor Rick Perry speaking
before a Tea party group in Texas in 2009 saying, “When we came into the Union
in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to
do that,” and “We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to
dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American
people, who knows what may come of that?”[6]
Ron
Paul went to a secession convention in Charleston, South Carolina held by the
Ludwig von Mises Institute (www.mises.org)
in 1995 where he was a speaker.[7]
He has been heavily involved with the pro-secession Ludwig von Mises Institute
over the years.
Why
is secession not odious?
I
think the answer is obvious to even the most casual observer. At the federal,
state, and local level Confederate secessionists who sought to destroy the
United States of America are honored and glorified with monuments and symbols.
This normalizes and makes the idea of secession to break up the United States
morally acceptable.
We
believe that a president of the United States of America should not send a
wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument as it glorifies both a violent
rejection of the United States and normalizes secession.
Earlier
we have written you about other practices by the federal government that
normalize secession: Allowing the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) to get
involved with the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps; Allowing the United
Daughters of the Confederacy to give awards to cadets at the U.S. Military
academies named after treasonous secessionists; and allowing the SCV to be part
of the Federal Combined Campaign.
I
ask you to stop normalizing secession by ending the Presidential practice of
sending a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument on Memorial Day or any
day and to end any federal activities that allow the SCV and UDC to spread
their secessionist message to our military.
Regards,
Edward
H. Sebesta
[1] Lori Sturdevant, “Party of
Lincoln flirts with a house-divided resolution,” Star Tribune, March 30, 2010, online.
[2] Lori Sturdevant, “Secession
gaining fans in MN GOP,” Star Tribune, April 12, 2010. Online.
[3] Jay Bookman, “Georgia Senate
threatens dismantling of USA,” Atlanta Constitution Journal, April 16, 2009, http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/04/16/georgia-senate-threatens-dismantling-of-usa/.
[4] Emi Kolawole, “Tennessee Rep.
Zach Wamp talks of secession,” Washington
Post, July 24, 2010. Online
[5] Jon Swaine, The Telegraph (UK),
Sept. 2, 2008, online; Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert, “Meet Sarah Palin’s
right-wing pals,” http://news.salon.com/2008/10/10/palin_chryson Online.
[6] James McKinley, jr., “Texas
Governor’s Secession Talk Stirs Furor,” New
York Times, April 18, 2009, online.
[7] Ludwig von Mises flyer,
“Secession!,” Ludwig von Mises Institute, post marked Feb. 27, 1995.
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