Written by: Abigail Chaff

Have you heard the news? According to whitehouse.gov, thousands of people from 36 states want to secede from the United States and form their own governments.

Since the reelection of President Obama, a number of secession petitions have been submitted online for review by Congress. States include Virginia, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and our great state of Ohio.

These petitions have garnered thousands of votes. Texas leads with a whopping 100,520 signatures. There were also other petitions submitted, including “strip the citizenship from everyone who signed a petition to secede and exile them,” and “force all states to pay their portion of the national debt before they can secede from the Union.”

Really, what is the point? What do these thousands of people really think they will accomplish by submitting these petitions? Yes, Congress will have to review these petitions, and a statement will be made, but what can really be done?

These states claim they want to start their own governments. Why do they think they can do better than the current U.S. government, which has taken hundreds of years to produce?

Where were all of these people when George W. Bush was reelected in 2004? Where were the cries for secession when there were thousands of soldiers dying in Iraq and a seemingly neverending debt was quickly mounting?

Everyone needs to keep his or her pants on and remember that the beauty of our government is that there are only four years left for Obama. And please don’t forget that Obama did win the popular vote.

Suck it up and accept the fact that you lost, but know that we’ll all get through it. No matter what the outcome of the election was, there was going to be a lot of unhappy people.

Don’t mock the United States by pouting and making silly petitions.