I am happy to see the Sun-Times give some space to an op-ed calling for the end of gerrymandering in Illinois. The author makes his recommendations, but I am not convinced that his solution is the best or right one.
There is one problem that the author’s solution does not deal with. When somebody is creating legislative districts and they have detailed information on the people involved, inevitably they will be making decisions on which district the residents should be in.That will always be subject to criticism.
For example, do you contort district boundaries to create a majority-minority district, yet at the same time create a Democratic one?
Is it the goal of a ‘fair’ map that all districts be evenly represented by Democrats and Republicans?Not only is that not fair to the people involved, but it will still create the wildly distorted districts that we now associate with gerrymandering.There are areas that are just naturally Democratic or Republican.Would a ‘fair’ map split them up to make them more even?
The only way to get a truly fair map is give the mapmakers no information as to the people involved, apart from natural boundaries, like towns, counties, maybe major highways, lakes, large rivers.Some districts will be naturally Republican and others naturally Democrat.And that’s fine.Anything beyond that will be open for manipulation and corruption.
Larry Craig, Wilmette
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Fleeing Illinois
It would actually be great news for our state if the Illinois Policy Institute took their own advice and moved to Indiana.The IPI is an organization that knows little and accomplishes even less for the Land of Lincoln.Don’t forget, they were disappointed the disastrous reign of Bruce Rauner wasn’t even more disastrous.
The Hoosier State can have them.
Don Anderson, Oak Park
The Bad 52s
There used to be a popular rock band called the B-52’s. I believe the 52 Republican senators who voted to keep President Trump in power should be called the “Bad 52’s.” The Republican Party believes that lying to Congress about sex is an impeachable offense. But they think using taxpayer money to bribe a foreign official to interfere with the next election is not. At least Nixon did not use my and other taxpayers’ money to get re-elected. He bribed burglars with campaign cash donated by willing supporters.
Now that Trump has been emboldened by the acquittal, he has fired a military official who had the nerve to speak the truth to Congress, interfered in the federal justice department sentencing of one of his friends, deployed more ICE agents to sanctuary cities to scare immigrants and seek revenge on those cities, and called for more taxpayer money to be taken from the Pentagon for his wall. And all that happened in just one week!
Why is it that only one Republican senator had the courage to do the right thing and follow his oath? The Bad 52’s should read “Profiles in Courage” by JFK. In it they will find historical examples of people who cared about the principles of our nation. These 52 Republican senators clearly do not.
Jan Goldberg, Riverside
