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PAGE 10A . FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday. March 21,2004 The Forsyth County News Opinion This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others. Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writers and artists and may not reflect our views. Redrawn map could change legislative politics If the redrawn legisla tive maps prepared by the federal courts remain in place for this year's elec tions. they will form the basis for a tidal wave of change under the gold dome of the state Capitol, the likes of which has not been seen for many years. Free from attempting to satisfy the needs of any political party, the federal courts have drawn a map that swaps common sense for partisan concerns. The result is a map with far fewer elongated fingers and tentacles of legislative districts drawn to stretch political power bases and maximize partisan clout. The redrawn map offers a mixed bag for Forsyth County. On the plus side, it guarantees one House member from Forsyth and makes it probable for a second from the county to be elected. It also reduces from four to two the num ber of Senate districts in the county and provides for a realistic opportunity for a Forsyth Countian to be elected to the state Senate, which we haven't had in recent years. In both the House and Senate the new map ties Forsyth together with Cherokee county, which makes sense given their common problems and issues. On the distinctly nega tive side, the redrawn map puts two existing state House members who have served the county well into the same districts. Incum bent Republicans Tom Knox and Jack Murphy, both Forsyth residents, will have to run against each other to win re-elec tion to the House or will Letter policy The Forsyth County News welcomes your opinions on issues of public concern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and evening phone 'I number for verification. ■ Names and hometowns of ( I \ 1 letter writers will be includ- I ed for publication without Fl [ _ 1 yj exception. Telephone num- rL| mH / hers will not be published. / Letters should be limit- / ed to 350 words and may be edited or condensed. The \ same writer or group may A* only submit one letter per rs v month for consideration. ' [K J Letters must be submitted by noon C \ Wednesday for Sunday publication. We /> do not publish poetry or blanket let ters and generally do not publish let- \ ters concerning consumer com- . plaints. Unsigned or incorrectly • H identified letters will be withheld. > oiw Mail letters to the Forsyth County News. PO. Box 210, Cumming, GA 30028, hand deliver to 302 Veterans Memorial Blvd., fax to (770) 889-6017 or email to edi tor@forsythnews.com. have to decide to explore other options. Knox and Murphy cer tainly aren't alone in that regard, however. Ignoring partisanship and incum bency, the newly drawn map puts some 86 incum bent members of the General Assembly in the same district as other members, including some of the most powerful peo ple in the legislative branch of state govern ment. Elections held based on the new map would create a sweeping tide of change in Georgia's legislative body, both by the loss of many incumbents due to sudden competition from their colleagues, and by virtue of the fact that the latest redrawing creates 47 legislative districts which would have no incumbent at all. While some members of the Legislature are cry ing the blues over the redrawn map, the truth is they have no one to blame but themselves. Had the state's General Assembly not acted so irresponsibly in carving up the political landscape in 2001 to pre serve clout for legislative Democrats, the courts never would have had to take such drastic action. There is still the slim potential of an appeal of the new map, but if it remains as drawn without change, it could well usher in a new era in Georgia politics. If so. perhaps some fresh faces with new ideas will see the logic of finding a different way to reapportion the state’s political districts in the future so that the debacle of 2001 will not be repeated. in TUe cweap gears ” 1 H!i Court’s legislative map isn’t perfect Federal judges are lucky. They aren't subject to recall or election. And they don't have to prove their intellectual skills. Otherwise, the federal jurists responsible for the just-released Georgia redistricting maps might be in serious trouble in parts of Georgia. Unless the court's House and Senate district maps are substantially altered, they are likely to create political prob lems for the entire state. Elections may have to be rescheduled. A passel of new litigation is certain to emerge. On the other hand, the court’s maps, tracking the state's population growth, estab lished numerous open districts, especially in North Georgia, that ought to bring fresh talent to the General Assembly. Even so. the court's work disturbs. The judges are fulfill ing a constitutional assignment of the General Assembly. Why should you and I care if the legislative bozos in the Gold Dome have abdicated their legal responsibility once again and allowed the federal courts to assume their lawmaking roles and create what many consider a mess? For starters, the court (and the Legislature) may have wrought such confusion to the redistricting process that the issue could remain alive for the remainder of the decade. Georgia citizens are always the losers in such inside-baseball political games. Legislators will continue to focus on their own district lines instead of fixing our failing schools, our overbur dened transportation system and our bankrupt budget. Additional millions will be spent on legal Letters Caricatures of Bush are obscene, hateful I find it disturbing that Forsyth County reprints Chip Bok cartoons that depict President Bush as a “monkey.” The new breed of “progressive" Democrat extrem ists frequently use this derogatory term when lambasting Bush, and it is quite obvious that Chip Bok subscribes to their philosophy. Not surprisingly, reviewing Bok’s past cartoons reveals that he only applies this obscene caricature to Bush. These are reminiscent of the caricature cartoons used by Nazis depicting Jews as rats or the U.S. depicting Japanese as buck toothed mushrooms. I thought civilization had evolved beyond such horrible characterizations, but I’m not surprised that these new Democrats want to embrace it again. That the Forsyth County News reprints these cartoons makes us wonder whether its staff agrees with their new policy of hate. Peter Wilkens Cumming Editorial cartoon was in poor taste I consider myself an open minded, intelligent individual, not prone to auto matic reactions or not a person who is easily manipulated. I realize that the political "rendering” that was published li I Bill Shipp fees try ing to sort out this tin gle-tangle. A cursory glance at the judi cial maps suggests the court did little more than haul in a com puter, pour into it columns of numbers and then push the start button. Out popped two brand new legislative maps. Just as the court had wanted, the comput er's districts are mostly com pact. The screwball, outlandish shapes imposed during the Barnes administration have dis appeared. Yet, in etching the less ghastly configurations, the com puter somehow failed to note that the myriad numbers it crunched were symbols for peo ple. A larger dash of human brainpower added to the com puter’s artificial intelligence might have produced different and fairer schemes. As it now stands, the judicial maps: • Restore “retrogression." the legal term for dilution of black voting power, to a level not seen since the days of Jim Crow. Numerous senior black legislators have been thrown into districts that place their political futures in serious jeop ardy. The Justice Department would have vetoed a similar Legislature-made map before the ink was dry. "This [judicial map] is the kind of redistricting that inspired passage of the fed eral Voting Rights Act," says one legal sage, who happens to in the March 17 edition of the Forsyth County News was not created in Forsyth County. However, the sheer, blatant, tasteless ness, and offensiveness of this “render ing" is simply staggering. To attribute anything to the poor souls who had to die in that horrible event is beyond reproach. Not only is President Bush using 9/11 for political purposes but also now. political "cartoonists" are getting into the action. I am not even sure what it is intended to mean. That the people who died that day would want us all to react some way? I don’t know. i 4rCjj i Ik Tin / \ vote Republican. In Columbus. House Rules Chairman Calvin Smyre, per haps the most powerful black legislator in Georgia history, was thrown into a new legisla tive district with another black committee chairman. Carolyn Hughley. and Tom Buck, white chairman of the Appropriations Committee. The court’s com puter spewed out this amazing three-way conflict even as it produced two open-seat districts on either side of the Smyre- Hughley-Buck mishmash. In metro Atlanta, several well-established black lawmak ers were tossed into districts against white incumbents. In another instance. Education Committee Chairman Bob Holmes must now face Rep. Tyrone Brooks, chairman of the Georgia Association of Black Officials. (We dwell on the problems created for minority lawmakers because their predicaments cre ate the most direct path to more prolonged and expensive litiga tion.) • Created equal headaches for white lawmakers and the GOP. Senate Republican President Pro Tern Eric Johnson, the guy who really runs the Senate, was thrown into an elongated district, pit ting him against longtime Democrat Rene Kemp of Hinesville. The computer split the town of Hinesville to create this awkward arrangement while leaving open districts all around. In fact, the court s computer showed little regard for county or even precinct borders. It shat tered them left and right, but was careful not to breach rail- way lines and interstate high ways. To further complicate mat ters, a high-profile Republican legislative candidate has spread the word around the Capitol that he is kin to one of the federal judges and knows what the courts will do before anyone else does. As this is written, Democratic lawyers are ponder ing how to use this bit of intelli gence in a legal appeal. If you enjoy playing the blame game, these new maps represent your Super Bowl. Blame Gov. Roy Barnes' min ions for insisting on such unrea sonable districts that the court stepped in. Blame Gov. Sonny Perdue for failing to exercise a mod icum of leadership in trying to help the Legislature redraw more appropriate districts. Blame both Republican and Democratic legislative leaders for refusing to compromise and walking away from their consti tutional roles. P.S.: To be fair, the federal courts are not equipped to draw legislative districts at lightning like speeds, which is what occurred in this instance. However, dear reader, don't be misled by assertions that the court's decision to discard some seasoned incumbents willy nilly is a good idea. Firing elected officials is the preroga tive of the electorate, not the judiciary. Oddly, the judges show that they understood this maxim when they left intact our equally weird congressional districts. Bill Shipp's column runs each Sunday and Wednesday. His e-mail address bshipp @ hellsouth.net. I do know that it was truly disturbing. Some people actually saw what was depicted in this “rendering" on the origi nal news coverage of that awful event. Why in the world would someone think that this image should be used for any kind of message? Absolutely disgusting. Gregg W. Nielsen Cumming Editor's note: The cartoon in question attributed political comments to people jumping from the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center..