Texas Secession Petitioner Talks About Why He Wrote It
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - The curtain has been pulled back on who the mysterious 'Micah H.' of White House petition fame actually is.
It turns out the man who famously stirred the hearts of thousands of Texas secessionists and intrigued thousands of journalists is Micah Hurd, a 5-year veteran Marine and a freshman at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Hurd, who says he had no clue what kind of firestorm he would create, says he came up with the petition on a whim. "You know, I literally wrote that petition in five minutes. I wish I hadn't, because the grammar could have been better."
Hurd says the only reason he wrote up the petition Friday was because someone in Louisiana jumped in first. "And I thought, Louisiana has one, and I went ahead and threw one up for Texas."
MORE: White House Petition To Let Texas Secede Reaches Goal
Hurd insists his petition was not in response to the Presidential election, though he says the problems needing fixing are held up by Washington. Rampant overspending at home and abroad; Congress' failure to come up with budgets for years; and what he sees as a loss of individual freedoms. "We've got, in my opinion, blatant infringement of our rights by the TSA. And historically it is a slippery and dangerous slope when we start giving up rights and freedoms in the name of protection."
On one hand, Hurd calls himself a gung-ho American. "I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that's an oath I took as a Marine, but I think we've got more enemies to the Constitution in-country than we do out of the country quite frankly."
But in the next breath, he claims Texans deserve better. "I believe that we can potentially take Texas and form, potentially, our own country and our own constitution and uphold our rights here in our state."
He recognizes he has critics as well as supporters. "Ultimately we've got people thinking about this and at least discussing....it's more a discussion about the things in our country that are good and bad and that's never a bad thing."
The response at UT Arlington has been negative. Most Students said it was far out and not very pragmatic... how do you replace a postal service, or the military for instance?
One said after fighting the Civil War, this was like going back in time.
Hurd realizes the impact of his request to President Obama. "Secession is a huge deal, there's a lot that's involved in that, but if we could do it peacefully and not redo the Civil War in my opinion, for Texans I don't believe it would be a bad option."
But Hurd stresses it's just an idea. "It's (secession) an idea, it's not a bad idea; it's a possible solution not the only alternative but a possible solution to the issues we suffer from... Ultimately we've got people thinking about this and at least discussing. I understand there are a lot of people that are talking about the legality of secession... I don't believe it's the only solution to the problem, however I believe it is a potential solution and I don't think it would be a bad solution."
And, he adds, he didn't start the petition for a laugh. "I certainly didn't do it as a joke, I didn't do it just to make waves. First of all because I didn't think it would go anywhere."
Hurd, who doesn't have much of a social media presence, says the internet is impersonal, as is the response. "So, naturally, the reactions I've received on the internet have been, in my opinion, way overboard, very very vehement. Probably the majority of them." And why? "Because we've got the entire country chiming in on this one Texas issue.
>>Click Here to read the full petition on WhiteHouse.gov<<
Governor Perry, who himself famously quipped about secession in 2009, says this one is a non-starter. The White House has promised a response in 30 days to any petitions with more than 25,000 signatures. As of Wednesday night, this one has four times that.
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