Washington D.C. has a major problem and no one seems to be taking it seriously at the top levels of our federal government. A few of the standard news sources are picking up the story, but it seems like zero response from the federal government is likely, although under their own terms it is mandated. This constitutes a promise to respond to such petitions per the terms and conditions of the electronic petition process.

After Barack Obama’s re-election over 50 secession petitions have been filed with www.petitions.whitehouse.gov Louisiana and Texas have drawn the most attention. Texas now has over 100,000 signatures and Louisiana had over 30,000 signatures within 48 hours of first filing.

This is a little different than the “Occupy” protests in my humble opinion. Why? Because the people signing these petitions are following the letter of the law to try to get a response and possible action, according to the self-written terms of the federal government.

The “We the People” site has “terms of participation” written on this page for anyone to browse. Surprisingly enough the terms are fairly straight forward and easily understood by people without legal degrees. The terms clearly state that a petition that gains 25,000 signatures within 30 days will receive a response.

As of this writing, the following ten states have already gathered the required 25,000+ electronic signatures within 30 days: Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma. Ten additional states are sitting at 19,000 signatures or more, which would lead one to believe that they may reach the 25,000 threshold. In fact Ohio could reach 25,000 by the end of the day (currently sitting at 24,819).

There is a third party site available to follow the up to date numbers at http://lanceingle.com/playground/

So what does all of this really mean? Does it mean these states will secede from the Union? In my opinion a lot of people signing the petitions are angry and just want their voices heard, but… Keep in mind that the government does have a mandatory response if they are able to reach the minimum 25,000 signature threshold. My state is one of the ten already “qualified” for a response. Would I like the secession debate to escalate? Yes I would, because I think the voice of the constituents should be heard. Would I vote for actual secession if it came to that? I don’t know. Like any person who tries to remain open-minded, I would first have to hear arguments from both sides. I think there are problems but no one would want to rush to any kind of judgement on such a major issue. It’s an issue that would effect myself and my family for the rest of our lives. Even so, I want it talked about and 911,168 people who have currently signed these petitions want it talked about as well.

Are we heading toward states actually holding special votes for secession from the United States of America? Possibly so but probably not.

Even though almost 1,000,000 people have signed various secession petitions, it’s still less than 1% of the population in most states. Either way I would encourage everyone to put pressure on the federal government to gain the mandatory response. They have promised it. Now will they deliver it?

If the federal government delivered everything they promised, every time they promised it…it’s doubtful we would even have this discussion.

Keep your federal government honest my friends. Make them offer a response. It won’t likely be the response nearly 1,000,000 people want but the communication is owed to the people and we should demand it no matter which side of the fence we are on. As usual, just my insights and opinions…feel free to offer your views below.