From: "Gene P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: October 5, 2008 8:22:40 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Cascadian_Bioregionalism] A move to secede on California-
Oregon border
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From The Oct 5th edition of The San Fransisco Chronicle:
(10-05) 04:00 PDT Yreka, Siskiyou County -- Some folks around here
think the economic
sky is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are
ignoring their constituents
in the hinterlands.
Guess the time is ripe to create a whole new state.
That's the thinking up here along the border between California and
Oregon, where 12
sparsely populated, thickly forested counties in both states want to
break away and
generate the 51st star on the nation's flag - the state of Jefferson.
You can see the signs of discontent from Klamath Falls to Dunsmuir,
where green double-
X "Jefferson State" flags hang in scores of businesses. You can hear
the talk of revolution
at lunch counters and grocery lines, where people grumble that
politicians to the north
and south don't care.
You can even hear the dissent on the radio, where 21 area FM stations
broadcast from
Oregon into California under the banner of "Jefferson Public Radio."
"We have nothing in common with you people down south. Nothing," said
Randy Bashaw,
manager of the Jefferson State Forest Products lumber mill in the
Trinity County hamlet of
Hayfork. "The sooner we're done with all you people, the better."
Talking about secession has been a quasi-joking conversational saw
since 1941, when
five counties in the area started things by actually declaring
themselves - briefly - to be
the state of Jefferson. But now, with the economy in trouble and
unemployment soaring,
the idea of greater independence is getting its most serious
consideration since World War
II.
Locals complain that federal and state regulators have hampered the
fishing and timber
industries to protect forestlands and endangered species such as
sucker fish and the
spotted owl. Jobs are so scarce that the median income in the area is
only two-thirds that
of the rest of the state. Most water from the rainy Shasta region is
shipped south, with
little economic benefit to the area. Even the California sales tax
draws sneers.
If they ran their own state, the reasoning goes, folks in Siskiyou,
Modoc and the other
potential Jefferson counties could whack the red tape from both
federal and state officials
and get rid of the sales tax.
Seeking signatures
The Grange Hall of Yreka, a farm-based service organization, is
activating 51 of its
brethren halls in the area to collect 1 million signatures to have a
statehood advisory
measure put on the California ballot. Tony Intiso, a runoff candidate
in the Nov. 4 election
for Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, has pledged to force the
issue and is running
campaign ads calling for regional freedom. The number of registered
users of a decade-
old Web site advocating partition has suddenly shot from dozens to
more than 900.
"Heck yeah, it's a darn good idea," said Richard Mitchell, manager of
the Cooley & Pollard
Hardware Store on Miner Street, the main drag in the blink-and-you-
miss-it town of
Yreka. "Those liberal people down south don't understand us at all,
and if there was a vote
today to form a new state, it would pass in a heartbeat.
"I would bet on it."
The window of Mitchell's store, where he tends the register in worn
work boots and a
camouflage hunting cap, displays T-shirts and flags sporting the
state "seal" of Jefferson:
Two X's denoting the double-crossing the area supposedly gets from
the capitols of
California and Oregon.
Article Continues at link Below:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/04/
MNNP138DLP.DTL&tsp=1
I'm Suspending judgemnt about this, I hope that it shakes out to be a
green economy. I
realize that people have lost hope, and they want change. I hope they
get the change they
need. Goodluck folks, -Gene
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