Valley Secession Backers Take Heed

Gov. Pete Wilson has yet to sign a bill making it easier for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles and already a committee has formed to get the job done. And already, cracks are beginning to form--the truest sign yet that a real revolution is brewing.

Throughout time, revolutions have fractured as myriad grievances ally themselves behind a single cause. So it was just a matter of time before they surfaced in the Valley. Last week, a committee formed to pursue secession irked some members of another secessionist group, sparking charges of exclusion. Allegations of divisiveness are nothing new in this debate, but it was nonetheless odd to hear them from this side of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Times makes no secret of its opposition to breaking apart Los Angeles. But it warns those who advocate that kind of municipal revolution to consider the words of Joseph Conrad: “The scrupulous and the just, the noble, the humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement--but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.”