When the State of Appalachia Initiative began, there was a split in the thinking of the early leadership. Half of the original leadership wanted to accept the offer of the West Virginia Governor, Jim Justice. At the time, Governor Justice offered that any county wishing to secede from the Richmond government would be welcomed as a new county in West Virginia. I advocated with several others for the formation of our own state. I had been looking into demographics in West Virginia and realized the state was slowly trending Democratic and within roughly ten years would be where Virginia currently is, politically speaking. Coupled with the debt the state government in West Virginia carries and their issues with large corporations.
Why would we want to kick the can down the road for ten years? We would be right back where we started. And so, the idea of becoming a new state won out, as you know.
This brings up some new questions for us though. If we were to become the 51st, 53rd, or even the 55th state, we would just be kicking the can down the road once again. Sure we could have our own state constitution and have a fairer shake, but we would still have one power over us. The Federal government, contrary to the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution, will nullify whatever we do. Why would we want to stay in a union that can over-rule our liberties?
No matter what laws we could pass to safeguard our ways of life, a foreign entity in Washington D.C. could snap its fingers and bypass all of these protections in the name of “safety and progress”.
As a new state in the Union, we would still be subject to arbitrary oversight from the ATF who see no issue in turning peaceful citizens into criminals overnight. We would still be subject to the DEA coming after peaceful people who raise a plant that naturally grows in the ground and use if for their own recreational or medicinal purposes. We would still be subject to the FDA who regularly go after farmers for not growing food to their specifications or selling unpasteurized milk to adult consumers who are fully aware of the potential dangers, while protecting pharmaceutical companies who knowingly push highly addictive medications on people needing actual assistance. We would still be subject to arbitrary and contradictory judgments from non-elected officials at the CDC and people like Dr. Fauci.
We, as a new state within the Union, would be subject to unconstitutional edicts from senile old men who claim their orders are not about freedom or liberty, and that their patience is wearing thin with people who will not comply.
When the United States Constitution was ratified, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a passerby “What kind of government shall we have?”
Franklin told him “A Republic, if you can keep it”.
Try as we might, the Republic has fallen and given way to a quasi-Fascist Democracy. We have seen it happening slowly, but since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become much more clear. Joining the Union as a new state is now, completely, out of the question.
The Federal government, from here on out referred to as the Federales, do not respect our choices. The Federales do not respect our ways of life, our religions, our bodies, or our liberties. They do not hold themselves to the constitutional constraints that our forefathers agreed upon so long ago. Well, thankfully for us, our founding document also addresses this.
The Declaration of Independence was our founding document. In it, the Founders put: “…whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it…”
It is clear that we need a National Divorce. We desire to live free and in peace and they mean that we shouldn’t. Therefore, we must dissolve our bounds of fellowship with not only the Commonwealth of Virginia, but with that of the so called United States of America.
I will personally continue to work on breaking off the Western half of Virginia, but I will need representatives in the Appalachian regions of other states to help draw the boundaries of our future nation. If you live in a county within the Appalachian region, begin to organize and speak with your local representatives. This is not a movement of a handful of Appalachians, but of ALL Appalachians.
If you are interested in forming a county chapter, please email me at thestateofappalachia@gmail.com with a location, a brief intro about yourself, and why you believe we should be leaving. I will also be looking to add larger “regional” chapters that will help organize the future states of Appalachia.
In 2022, I would like for us to hold a Congress of Counties to form a provisional government that will declare our independence. We have a lot of work to do. Let’s get to it.
You can stay up to date with Smokey and the State of Appalachia by following their Instagram and Twitter or by checking out their website!
The Nation of Appalachia
You can’t claim Appalachia, unless you intend it to run from NY to MS. Having said that, as a resident of WV, I totally support this idea of the form of the whole. All of Appalachia has suffered the same issues, forever.
It’s a strange thing about those of us from Appalachia… We share more with each other than we do with those that border, what is known as, Appalachia. I’ve been all over the Appalachian region, and I have found that from New York to Mississippi, Appalachians are one and the same. Virginia’s “suffering” and “inequality” does not occur in a vacuum within the Appalachia whole.
“I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.” - MB