There is a meeting of the Isabella County Redistricting Commission tonight at 5 p.m. in Room 225 of the County Building. This will be the first meeting at which the commission members will have had access to the software and the census data, and it will be interesting to see what they have been able to do with it.

The League of Women Voters filed a FOIA request with the County last Monday, and we now have the official rules under which the commission operates, and a CD containing all the redistricting data put out by the State of Michigan. However, we do not have the software to make it easy (easier) to use, as it is $1000. a copy, and the County brought only three copies for the use of the five commissioners. The amount of data is daunting, with 130 pages of directions and hundreds of data tables and a separate section with very detailed maps. Sarah and I have both looked at this data and it will take a very long time to sort it out and handle it manually without the software.

If you are able to attend this meeting you will be reinforcing our FOIA request and helping make the League known as an organization promoting openness and transparency in government. It could also be extremely interesting!

The Michigan Redistricting Collaborative sponsored Draw the Line Michigan, a forum about redistricting, at Schoolcraft College on March 14. Organized by LWVMI, with support from the Midwest Democracy Network, the event featured presentations on what to expect from this year’s redistricting process, why it is important to citizens, and ways to have a voice in the process.

Keesha Gaskins, attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice, opened the program with an overview of redistricting. A key aspect of representative democracy, redistricting should aim to represent communities that have common interests. Instead, it is typically used to promote political goals, such as drawing safe seats for one or both parties or protecting incumbents. Gaskins reviewed the federal and state laws covering redistricting, noting that Michigan’s process is fully controlled by the Legislature with no provisions for public comment on the plans.
Virginia Martinez, attorney from the Mexican American Legal and Educational Defense Fund, spoke about the Voting Rights Act, saying that race and ethnicity can be considered when drawing lines but cannot unjustifiably predominate. Martinez discussed legal precedents and factors that enter into determining whether voting rights are violated, including concentrations of minority voters, racial voting patterns, and history of discriminatory voting practices or procedures. She added that race and ethnicity cannot be used to dilute minority community voting power by “cracking” (dividing into multiple districts) or “packing” (over-concentrating) minority voters.

Gaskins discussed two ways to view competitiveness in redistricting. In areas where neither major party has a strong majority, districts can be drawn to encourage competition between the parties. But competitiveness is also undermined when a district is drawn to exclude a competitor, to the benefit of a specific candidate. This happens even within districts that are safely held by one party.

Gaskins also noted that a gerrymandered district is not obvious from its appearance. Districts drawn to achieve political goals can be regularly shaped and ones drawn to account for community interests can be oddly shaped. To effectively evaluate the district, it is necessary to understand the reasons for its design.
Both presenters emphasized that Michigan only gets one chance at redistricting every ten years and unless citizens work to influence the process now, they will not have another chance for 10 years. Gaskins encouraged people to testify, prepare or critique maps, and otherwise get involved, saying that citizen efforts can become part of the record in legal challenges to the maps that pass the Legislature.
Kurt Metzger, Director of Data Driven Detroit, presented Michigan’s population trends and what to expect when the 2010 Census data are released. Michigan was the only state in the nation to lose population between 2000 and 2010. Changing migration patterns were a big factor, as 540,000 more people left the State than moved in. Michigan had a net population loss to every state in the nation except Maine.

Metzger noted that Wayne County led all counties nationally in population loss, which occurred primarily in Detroit but in other areas as well. More than half of the State’s counties lost population over the decade. Among those that grew, Macomb, Kent, and Livingston counties experienced the highest growth rates.
Hispanic and Asian American populations grew at the fastest rates statewide. The African American population remained steady in numbers but has relocated, particularly from Detroit into southern Oakland and Macomb counties, as well as throughout Wayne County.

In relation to redistricting, Metzger said that the State lost a Congressional seat and the 13th and 14th Congressional districts (Detroit) will have to cover much larger areas. Wayne County districts will also have to expand.

Metzger also noted that the 2010 Census will not provide income, education, and other socio-economic data. These data will only be available from the American Community Survey, which is less accurate for small populations.

Dr. Michael McDonald, Associate Professor at George Mason University, talked about mapping criteria and how presumably neutral criteria have political consequences. Since voting precincts are contained within Census blocks and places, election data can be used to assess the political outcomes of different approaches to drawing the maps. McDonald’s analysis found that in 2001, Michigan’s Congressional districts were heavily biased and the state districts were modestly biased, both towards Republicans. The redistricting criteria used by the Michigan Legislature, the Apol Standards, prioritize creating districts within county boundaries and this criterion results in a bias towards Republican districts. If the priority had been on preserving Census places, a slight bias towards Democratic districts would have occurred, since Democrats are more concentrated in cities.

McDonald stressed the importance of access to data and mapping software, saying that control of the data is one of the ways that redistricting authorities limit public access to the redistricting process. In 2001, Michigan was the least transparent, in terms of its use of data and software. The political parties, rather than State government, built the redistricting database.

McDonald and some of his colleagues have developed free redistricting mapping software, which will be used for a redistricting competition in Michigan. A similar competition was held recently in Virginia, to bring a public spotlight to redistricting and produce alternative maps. McDonald encouraged people to let legislators know which criteria will best represent their interests, but also predicted that Michigan’s process will be a repeat of 2001.

Top: Jan Alfano, collage
Center: Kathy McAllister & Samantha Keeler, water color
Bottom: Emily Johnston & Amanda Mitchell, hoop and gymnastics

On Friday, April 15, Mary McGuire Elementary School students met community artists. Each school year, Art Reach of Mid Michigan provides two area schools with A Day with the Artists.
Top: Jan Alfano, collageGroups of children in grades 4, 5, and 6 went from one station to the next for about twenty minutes at each. Some stations had an artist working on a project, such as collage, hand built clay, pottery wheel, cartooning and wool spinning, answering questions the students had. At others there were two or more artists demonstrating their specialty, such as water color, dancing and singing. CMU musicians played a variety of instruments. There were twelve stations in locations around the school.

The Day went from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm. Lunch was provided to the artists by Big Apple Bagel and the McGuire staff.

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee publicly released the final budget agreement for FY 2011 negotiated by President Obama with House and Senate leaders, which includes $155 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This represents a cut of $12.5 million from the FY 2010 enacted level of $167.5 million, which is significantly better than the previous House-approved level of $124.4 million. Also included in this bill is $25.5 million in funding for the Arts in Education programs at the U.S. Department of Education, which had been zeroed-out in a previous continuing resolution. This compromise legislation is set to go to the House floor later this week before moving on to the Senate for final approval.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives had passed legislation that would have reduced NEA funding by 26 percent and faced threats of terminating the agency. Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert Lynch noted in a press statement: "Americans for the Arts is heartened by the final FY2011 federal budget levels for the nation’s cultural agencies, which reflect a more sensible and proportionate funding cut of 7.5 percent to the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. While we firmly believe that the nation would be better served with a more robust investment in nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in communities across the country, we acknowledge the constraints of the current budget. We are also pleased that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Smithsonian Institution did not incur any cuts."

This news comes just a week after National Arts Advocacy Day where hundreds of arts advocates from across the country were joined by actors Alec Baldwin, Kerry Washington, Hill Harper, and Kevin Spacey in Washington, DC to advocate in support of the NEA and arts education.

Today marks the sesquicentennial of the beginning of America’s Civil War. At 4:30 am on this date, in 1861, the southern forces began shelling Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. I saw no great notice of the event in today’s Morning Sun, and am glad of it.

Historians now credit slavery as the underlying cause of that war. As a first generation American, I have no inherited phobias about that long and costly affair. As a retired Regular Air Force Officer, I have studied the development, endurance, and conclusion of it in the rather antiseptic analysis of tactics and strategy that occurred. It is said to be the last old fashioned war and the first modern one. The use of logistics through the railroad lines, massed troops with heavy fire power, and heavy casualties with field hospitals moving with the lines make it truly a first.

What I do not understand is the role of melanin, the main determinant of skin color to absorb or disperse ultraviolet rays as the basis for an extensive prejudice that exists both in the “north” and in the “south.” I can understand the superstitious basis of sinister handedness, but not the color of one’s skin.

Since this is the beginning of the study of that conflict and its disruptive effect on the United States, I hope it also becomes a time when sober adults address the lingering misery of maladjusted hatred that still remains.

Art Reach on Broadway, 111 E. Broadway is displaying fabulous contemporary works by Michigan quilters. The Michigan Artists Invitational includes exceptional pieces, this year on the theme "South of the Border."

Dying, cutting,tearing,stamping,monoprinting and fusing show the great delicacy and imagination of these fine artists. Incredibly detailed images sewn in layers produce works of art. The show continues through April 29, so be sure to take in the beauty, style and rhythm of their work.

Dr. Papendick and his IET 361 class

Central Michigan students have built 15 benches for the Art Reach Chair Affair. Dr. Alan Papendick assigned the project to his IET 361 Construction Technology class. He divided the class into groups of three, each responsible for three benches.

The bench had been designed and all the wooden parts cut by the Industrial Engineering and Technology Club. Members include Barrie Glostlin. Patrick Meyer, Ryan Lewis, and Jayson Raymond.

Chairs will be painted by local artists and students in time for the Chair Affair. They will be on display in downtown Mt. Pleasant from June 20 through July 23. Be sure to stop at Art Reach on Broadway, 111 East Broadway to bid on your favorite chair or bench.

The League of Women Voters sent this message:

Right now, the Michigan Legislature is drawing new political district lines. This process happens only once every 10 years. That’s why we need to be sure that it’s done in a way that accurately reflects our communities.

Unfortunately, that’s usually not the case. Instead, the political party in power draws districts that will benefit them the most. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue – both parties do it all the time.

This year, let’s make a stand against political redistricting. Contact your state legislator and tell them that you want a transparent redistricting process – that means plenty of opportunity to understand the proposed districts, ask questions, and provide input.

If you want to learn more about how redistricting works, visit the website of the Michigan Redistricting Collaborative (MRC) at www.drawthelinemichigan.org. The MRC is a coalition of organizations dedicated to cleaning up the redistricting process in our state.

Everyone is ignorant about something. Alright, I’ll go first. If a sportscaster reported “The results of an exciting cricket match just in: the Mudflats got five wickets over the Airfoils,” I can’t really tell whether that is good or bad or which wick is stickiest. If you were to ask, “Do all female kangaroo rats have pouches?” I would either have to take a wild guess or admit that I don’t know. (That question, though, has an interesting form that I use a lot.) I admit it: my knowledge is limited. Very limited.

It’s impossible to know everything about everything. There’s only so much room in the pail of our memories and soon it overflows. As we evolved there was a benefit to knowing just enough to get through the day: we had enough to shuffle along hunting, gathering, eating, drinking, loving and sleeping. Oh, yes, also fighting for our existence.

Things got a bit better when families formed tribes. The gene pool was a lot bigger. However, we now had to remember a lot more names and who was related to whom. We had to learn to work as a team to hunt bigger prey and gather larger roots and berries. The pail wasn’t any bigger but we needed to know more.

Tribes became clans; clans became villages; villages became cities; cities became states which became nations and here we are today. Each step required us to fill the memory pail with more specifics just to get along. To do this each of us became a specialist. Yes, we had to remember family and the boundaries of our property, but we didn’t have to know how to do everything needed to get through the day. We were farmers, or hunters, or bakers, accountants, or nuclear physicists. We could buy the necessities from specialists: bread from the baker, tax returns from accountants, and atoms from the physicist.

That simplified things a lot, but it also made it easier not to know. And that is a huge problem. In a recent edition of Newsweek (March 28 & April 4, 2011), there was a large section on ignorance. Before going there, let’s address what it is.
Ignorance is the absence of knowledge about something. It may be unintentional, such as who the driver is in that approaching truck, or the last name of the clerk in the store with the name tag Flo. This sort of ignorance is usually harmless. Intentional ignorance comes in several varieties. If I am a baker I don’t have to know anything about nuclear physics; it doesn’t relate to baking. If I am a nuclear physicist I don’t have to know anything about baking. In either case, I don’t want to fill my memory pail with information I don’t need. If I wanted to know I could Google it. This, too, is pretty harmless. However, if I insulate my knowledge in order to maintain my preconceived notions, I could very well do harm to myself or to an innocent other.

The Newsweek articles ask “Are Americans smart enough to be U.S. citizens.” A thousand Americans were asked selected questions from the bank of questions used to test immigrants wishing to become citizens. Number 23 is “What is the economic system of the United States?” 67% of those questioned got it wrong! I have to admit I got one wrong along with 86% of the rest: “The House of Representatives has how many voting members?” My answer, “Too many,” should have been 435.
New citizens have to pass a test to get in. In high school, civics was a required course, so I managed to squeak through here, as did 62% of those tested for the articles. That means 38% of our fellow Americans know less about America than naturalized citizens.

There is only one known cure for ignorance. Knowledge, a real understanding of things vital to the well being of this country. There can be no excuse for ignorance of how our country’s government works, other than incapacity. Be knowledgeable enough to keep the politicians from pulling the wool over your memory pail.