Geraldine's
'Gerrymander Memorial'
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
Well, it looks like we're stuck with the Texas Legislature's congressional redistricting plan, which carved up Austin and put the parts into three weirdly shaped districts stretching from the Hill Country to the Mexican border. As a practical matter there isn't much we can do about it, but we can still act like Austinites and make the redistricting plan into a perennial butt of national jokes by turning the whole thing into a work of art.
In that spirit I propose we initiate a competition to design the "Gerrymander Memorial," to be placed on the exact spot where those three sad, silly districts meet at a rather undistinguished intersection on 38th Street, one block west of Guadalupe.
I'm sure we can get prominent academics from the UT School of Architecture and the local political world ("Ann Richards, are you busy?") to be judges. Personally, I'd also invite a sprinkling of big-name artists, political figures, and critics to help, along with the mayor of Austin. Once they've selected a winning design, all we have to do is raise a bit of cash to put it up, and then force our City Council to vote to allow the memorial to be erected on the site.
In my mind's eye I see a bronze statue of the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the Texas House hunched over a computer terminal, reading a precinct printout, with one of them pointing off into the distance toward Mexico; or maybe just three arrows and live webcasts from the farthest reaches of each district, two from the Rio Grande river, one from the high plains. But I'm not an artist ... although I'll volunteer to be one of the judges and to put up a bit of the prize money.
Well, it looks like we're stuck with the Texas Legislature's congressional redistricting plan, which carved up Austin and put the parts into three weirdly shaped districts stretching from the Hill Country to the Mexican border. As a practical matter there isn't much we can do about it, but we can still act like Austinites and make the redistricting plan into a perennial butt of national jokes by turning the whole thing into a work of art.
In that spirit I propose we initiate a competition to design the "Gerrymander Memorial," to be placed on the exact spot where those three sad, silly districts meet at a rather undistinguished intersection on 38th Street, one block west of Guadalupe.
I'm sure we can get prominent academics from the UT School of Architecture and the local political world ("Ann Richards, are you busy?") to be judges. Personally, I'd also invite a sprinkling of big-name artists, political figures, and critics to help, along with the mayor of Austin. Once they've selected a winning design, all we have to do is raise a bit of cash to put it up, and then force our City Council to vote to allow the memorial to be erected on the site.
In my mind's eye I see a bronze statue of the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the Texas House hunched over a computer terminal, reading a precinct printout, with one of them pointing off into the distance toward Mexico; or maybe just three arrows and live webcasts from the farthest reaches of each district, two from the Rio Grande river, one from the high plains. But I'm not an artist ... although I'll volunteer to be one of the judges and to put up a bit of the prize money.
Dave Miller
