Courtesy Citybizlist–The mountain natives are restless in Maryland. They want to have it their way, though they represent just 10 percent of the state’s population.
Here are a few things that annoy them:
• A stream of tax increases (including one on rain!) from Annapolis.
• State restrictions that devalue their land.
• Tougher gun-control laws.
• A bleeding-heart law that does away with the death penalty.
• A state law legalizing gay marriages.
• Political map-makers who deprive them of their conservative congressman.
It’s enough to make you want to secede, which is the plan put forth by a Carroll County blogger, Scott Strzelczyk of New Windsor, for the five counties often lumped together as Western Maryland.
The verb “to secede” is a curious term not to be confused with the similar-sounding verb “to succeed.”
Indeed, were the five western counties to secede from Maryland, there would be no chance for that movement to succeed.
It won’t happen
Here’s why.
• The 51st state: Western Maryland would be the third smallest by population (less than 660,000). Only Wyoming and Vermont would have fewer residents.
