The Jefferson plan

The movement by a number of residents of North State counties to gather enough support to secede from the state of California and to form the State of Jefferson is gaining steam (see “More than a state of mind,” Newslines, by Ken Smith, page 8).

Already, a majority of Siskiyou County’s Board of Supervisors have voted to approve a document espousing the region’s intent to withdraw from the state of California. Other counties are sussing out whether to join this organized rebellion.

We believe the leaders of the effort when they say that this isn’t a joke. And we most certainly understand why the folks behind this plan—however unlikely it is to succeed—would want to pull away from a state run by the dysfunctional legislative body in Sacramento that all but ignores its constituents in this rural part of the state.

On the other hand, it’s much too early in this movement to call on local leaders to join the effort.

We would have a lot of questions before signing onto such a plan. Chief among them would be what kind of environmental protections the proposed leaders of such a state would enforce. We’re not keen on, say, having a state house full of climate-change deniers.

Still, we’re interested in learning more about the group’s intentions, and we think the discussions that come out of this movement may shed some light on the very real grievances our representatives in state Capitol should take seriously.