So I attended a redistricting forum here in Jonesboro last night, and two things are bugging me about this whole process.
First, all the folks there, from the Board of Apportionment, the Gov’s office, the AG’s office, the Office Of Future Indicted Criminals Secretary of State’s office, had one thing in common. They were all a bunch of white guys. Okay, I’m sure most of these folks are good at their jobs. Many of them seemed like it. But seriously, where are the women? Where are the people of color? This is about who represents who at the heart of it, and the voices of minorities, and the female majority, deserve to be included. Shame on Governor Beebe, AG McDaniel, and Future Jailbird Mark Martin for not making a point of seeing that the people working on this issue and operating these forums don’t look more like the real Arkansas.
Second, at one point, the guy on the stage mentioned how he was going to meet with the Tea Party at some point. Why? Are they going to meet with the Greens and the state’s new Libertarian Party? They should, long before meeting with the teabaggers, because they aren’t an actual political party. For that matter, if they’re going to meet with them, shouldn’t they also be meeting with MoveOn groups or folks from Arkansas Uncut? Somehow I doubt that’s on the agenda…
The teabaggers aren’t a political party. Why should people who like dressing up like the founding fathers while wearing teabags from their hats and carrying racist signs get any special attention in this? Inquiring minds want to know.
Otherwise, I will say this, I was impressed by the fact that they were actually listening to input and taking notes while providing detailed information and maps. Well worth attending.
Oh, and just so you know, teabaggers that want to complain that Mark Martin is being mistreated by partisan Mike Beebe because he’s not automatically getting his maps accepted don’t have much to say when you bring up Alice Stewart…
I too attended the meeting in at ASU last night. While I thought that it was nice that they were taking notes but found it troubling that everyone was willing to admit that non of the maps we were looking at stood a chance of becoming law. Before they hold meeting they need to have more maps and maps that have really had some research and thought put into them. I was also troubled by the fact that two individuals, Debbie Pelly and I assume you were there with a political message last night. Both of which were completely out of order and best saved for another time. This process is political by nature but both the Sec. of State and the AG are making it overly political.
I don’t recall them even suggesting that none of the maps “stood a chance of becoming law”. I think you misunderstood.
And yes, that was me who countered what Mrs. Pelly had to say. Hadn’t planned on saying anything while I was there but I wasn’t going to let what she said go without an answer.
That being said, all I had to say was that it was inappropriate for the Deputy Sec of State to be making partisan comments and casting doubt on the integrity of the process. In what way is that out of order? And how, pray tell, is the AG’s office doing anything akin to that? Me thinks you are grasping for a false equivalence.