Home of Today’s Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 1/25/2004
I read the Herald’s most recent article on re-districting published January 11. I agree that the effort and resources used to accomplish the gerrymandering was misspent and would have been better spent on other things like education, I do not agree that it will cause political mayhem as was pronounced. I cannot accept that anarchy or chaos will result.
Further, the action is not unprecedented. While not common, it is not unheard of. There have been several past articles published here describing instances of the lines being changed for one reason or another, between census reports.
A big difference here is that the Republicans came out and said to everyone that they were improving their political position. At the very least they were straight forward about that. Past gerrymandering was promoted by Democrats “to improve the representation of minorities” which could only be done by them.
I contend that all gerrymandering is done to improve the position of the party in power. Read the rest of this entry »

Published Brownsville Herald 1/18/2004
We are beginning an election year and the discussion has started as to the path to follow to more and better employment and a better economy.
We are seeing the economy get better but the improvement in the number of new jobs does not appear to have done the same. The aspirants to political office are trying to blame the opposition; others say that many workers do not really want to work because the potential loss of public benefits is more than the gain achieved by working. Then there are those that blame the social influences and the educational system for diminishing the competitive nature and traditional social values resulting in the loss of the traditional work ethic. Read the rest of this entry »