Officials in sunny south Florida are the latest to jump on board with the secession trend.
South Miami Vice Mayor Walter Harris proposed a resolution that would split the state in half and make South Florida the 51st state in the union, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday. That resolution passed the city commission by a vote of 3-2 on Oct. 7.
Secession talk had notably bubbled up in far northern California and in northeast Colorado last year, with the latter state actually holding a vote on a 51st state initiative in 11 counties. Five of those 11 Colorado counties voted in favor of seceding from the state by strong margins.
In both those states, secession advocates cited a lack of representation in a state government controlled by Democrats as motivation for breaking away. But Harris suggested a major motivating factor behind his proposal was the Republican-controlled state government’s failure to address the effects of climate change on south Florida, where sea levels are rising at a rate that may put Miami underwater by the end of the century.
“We have to be able to deal directly with this environmental concern and we can’t really get it done in Tallahassee,” Harris said, as quoted by the Sun-Sentinel. “I don’t care what people think — it’s not a matter of electing the right people.”
South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard, who once called Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) an “idiot” because of his views on climate change, concurred.
“It’s very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean,” Stoddard said, as quoted by the Sun-Sentinel. “They’ve made that abundantly clear every possible opportunity and I would love to give them the opportunity to do that.”
As will all proposed secession measures, however, individual counties would have to approve Harris’ resolution. The state legislature and U.S. Congress would then have to approve of the split.
Image via Shutterstock / GeorgeMPhotography
South Florida’s our canary in the coal mine.
Too bad for them that their governor’s “not a scientist”.
What could governor “naked mole rat” possibly say?
These folks really don’t have a clue (DHAC).
Secession is an act of treason. Why would the USA want a group of proven treasonists to join the union?
What makes them think that removing themselves from the union would automagically appoint them statehood? Isn’t secession, by definition, REMOVING themselves form statehod?
For perspective, Miami-Dade County, of which South Miami is a part of, has a population of 2.617 million. The suburb of South Miami itself has a population of–wait for it–12,088. Why should we even take notice of what a vice mayor of a tiny suburb is spouting off about?
I hate to break it to you Florida, but nothing is going to stop your state from first becoming a collection of islands, and then, finally disappearing beneath the waves. If we’d been working seriously on a solution for the past 30 years, it might have turned out differently, but frankly, it’s too late. Maybe in another couple hundred years, if we learn how to reverse the process, land will come back out of the sea.
Until then, our only hope is that is the Mantle heats, the tectonic plates will expand, and volcanic activity will increase, filling the upper atmosphere with particles to inhibit sunlight. Of course, this will be accompanied by more earthquakes, and who can guess if the impact will be sufficient, but hey, all you waterfront property owners–if you ain’t sold yet, prepare to get wet.