Word: mapped
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...care about democracy, the map of Louisiana should scare you. I don't mean the regular map of the boot-shaped state; I mean the new Congressional districting map. The United States Supreme Court didn't like it, and neither should...
...process of redistricting must change. No political party's leadership should be able to stack the deck in its own favor. The redrawing of the political map must be achieved impartially. The Bureau of the Census can do the job. Districts should 1) encompass populations of roughly similar sizes within each state, 2) be contiguous and "star-shaped" (a line can be drawn from the center to any point on the border without exiting the district), 3) respect town borders whenever possible and 4) be drawn with the same basic criteria in every state...
...want to create districts of approximately 500,000 people each. First, find the average per-square-mile population of the state. Next, draw a grid across its map with squares containing an average of 500,000 people in each one. Now comes the unavoidably subjective part. Squares must be added, subtracted and tinkered with until the populations in each district are correct. If the same algorithm is used for every district everywhere (i.e. start at western portion of the state, always expand districts east, then north, then south, etc.), the system becomes largely impartial over the entire nation...
...literal-minded, white way of misreading an Indian story? Maybe, maybe not. At any rate, Erdrich's central theme comes through clearly: reservation life does little to preserve the strengths of Native American culture and is a cruel hothouse for its weaknesses. If the present novel needs a map and compass, Erdrich losing her way is preferable to most other writers steering a straight course. Here is her description of Shawnee Ray's busybody mother Zelda: "She should have had more children or at least a small nation to control. Instead, forced narrow, her talents run to getting people...
...something must be done to stop the killing in Bosnia, in Somalia, in a dozen other bloody conflicts. And it is far more politically palatable than sending soldiers to fight and die in countries -- without strategic assets like oil or nuclear weapons -- that few people can locate on a map. But as Bosnia and Somalia show, aid by itself solves very little and rapidly becomes part of the problem...