Slavery remained in the Deep South by other names - in prison programs with charges over nothing and eternal debt that threatened every African-American in the South right up through World War II. And that was after killing three-quarters of a million people, destroying cities, and creating hostility that exists to this day over the the Confederate flag and the racism it symbolizes, all brewing out of bitterness over a war that didn't have to happen.

Climate change is so unimaginable that most Americans deny it's happening.

California as a nation or part of a larger West Coast nation, should other states join with California, would be a good influence on the rest of the United States.

The United States has been becoming worse year after year after year for decades, and it's guaranteed to continue down that path if we don't change something.

I'm not convinced that the people of Arizona as a nation couldn't do better to protect equal rights for all than the people of Arizona as part of the United States, which is actually not helping them much.

If we think that we can somehow gain control of the US government, bring it under popular, enlightened progressive control, preserve a habitable climate, and rein in the dangers of nuclear and other warfare, then we should. However, if we think it's more likely that California can achieve those goals by secession, then we should go down that path. There's no question. It's an absolute moral imperative.

California, like anywhere else on Earth, should have the right to secede whether the United States likes it or not. The preferences of the other 49 states and Washington DC is not relevant. That was the position of the United States government on Yugoslavia and other places around the world but not on Ukraine. However, morality and the law as I understand it are that any people should have the right to leave, just as explained in the initial words of the US Declaration of Independence.