When I was editor of the then-Delaware State News back in the 1970s, I proposed — only partly in jest — that the Delmarva Peninsula should become a state. Has the time finally arrived?
More than 40 years later, I’m reading about the Salisbury (Maryland) Area Chamber of Commerce resisting Maryland’s endless tax increases, as well as letter writer Frank Daniels lamenting the control that liberal New Castle County has over Delaware’s statewide elections. Meanwhile, several counties want to secede from ultraliberal Illinois, so they can join the more sensible neighboring state of Indiana.
The reality is that Delaware’s Kent and Sussex counties have little in common with upstate New Castle County. Similar divides exist between the mainlands of Maryland and Virginia and their Eastern Shore counties.
So, why not include everything above the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal — most of Delaware’s New Castle County, plus Maryland’s Cecil County — with Maryland, then unite Delaware’s Kent and Sussex counties with Maryland’s Eastern Shore counties? While we’re at it, perhaps Virginia’s Eastern Shore counties would also want to join the dynamic new state.
Just imagine how well the great state of Delmarva would fit together — geographically, culturally, politically and economically!
Joe Smyth
Scottsdale, Arizona
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
