30 November 2011

Brian Williams Chill Pill Needed

Brian Williams, who was once anchor at Joplin's KOAM-TV, displayed a most admirable sense of cool and collected composure when fire alarms blared during his live broadcast of NBC Nightly News this week, and likewise when he did spot reporting from his one-time home in the aftermath of last May's tornado.

If only I had that amount of cool this evening when I saw the new maps of the Missouri House and Senate districts. Fortunately, the Senate maps (outside St. Louis) allowed me to regain some composure and stop my neighbors from asking what the heck I was screaming about. Well, when something odd happens close to home, you're inclined to freak out:

This is the House district line between districts 16 (south) and 38 (north & east). In the northwestern corner is District 12, which will stretch from Platte City to Kearney.

You'd expect to see such sawtooth boundaries in urban districts, but we're not talking about two suburban districts. Because of the population distribution between the growing suburbs of Kansas City and the greying breadbasket of Northern Missouri, District 16 will consist of subdivisions ranging from Gashland and New Mark to Shoal Creek Valley and parts of North Brook, while District 38 will stretch from this area east to Excelsior Springs and Missouri City. However, the population of Liberty (the oldest municipality in the Kansas City area), is in for a shock.

After I gave up on using the state administration office's GIS tool, I downloaded the KML files for display in Google Earth, and the results were damning through Liberty.


This is Exit 17, the junction between Interstate 35 and Highway 291. At this point (OK, a few yards away owing to pre-Interstate road alignments) is the confluence of districts 16 (southwest), 17 (southeast) and 38 (northeast). This is where the boundary for 38 really gets screwy. A small subdivision across from Lewis & Clark Elementary is split along its lone, winding street. It then follows Gallatin down toward Ridgeway Road, heads south toward Fairview and then onto the Junior High.


This is downtown Liberty and one of its historic neighborhoods to the west. The red line decides to jog around, going east a block on Kansas, then south on Moss until it hits Liberty Drive, then east onto Mill until it becomes Richfield Drive at William Jewell. The square and college are in District 38; the Junior High and Franklin Elementary, District 17. Again, William Jewell is in a rural district with Excelsior Springs and Franklin Elementary is in a suburban district with Claycomo and Pleasant Valley.

From Richfield Road, the boundary goes south on Claywoods Parkway, the main north-south road through the Claywoods subdivisions. Until it hits this group of houses:


The district boundary breaks away to group the first two houses on Silverleaf Lane, then goes along the backyards of several houses until it reaches a home that has its back against the cul-de-sac on Crimson Lane. The boundary goes along the property lines, through the cul-de-sac, and then makes a due-south dash for the water treatment plant. Yes, that means two houses on Crimson Lane are in one suburban district, whilst the rest of the street is in the neighboring rural district.

I'm hearing stories of how as many as three incumbents could be pitted against each other for one seat (the new District 5 between Shelby, Marion and northern Monroe counties is coming to mind), but this meticulous buzzsaw through Liberty really got my blood boiling. And this could have been prevented had nine Republicans and nine Democrats been able to actually agree to something workable rather than stick with their own political endeavours.

Now, folks going door to door campaigning through Claywoods and Brooke Meadows will wind up cherry-picking doors as a result of oddly drawn lines.

Get the sheers out, folks. Just don't use them when you're on chill pills soon to be named for Brian Williams.

26 November 2011

On Disparaging Tweets

November doesn't seem like a good month to be a Tweeter in a certain state to the west.

This week, regional media was abuzz over a tweet sent by Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School, making a disparaging comment about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback as he was speaking to her school's Youth in Government during a field trip to the state capitol in Topeka. She and her supporters say the tweet (complete with "#heblowsalot") was a joke, but the Governor's office is certainly not laughing, as their complaint to administrators at East has resulted in the school requiring Sullivan to write a letter of apology to Brownback.

While this certainly tests the lines on freedom of expression within the confines of our schools, especially when it comes to social media and politics, I'm only dumbstruck by the lack of decorum exhibited by both parties. While students should not "check their First Amendment rights at the door", as famously phrased in Tinker vs. United States, it was disrespectful of Sullivan to make that Tweet as the governor was speaking to her school group. She certainly had the right to make those comments, but the manner in which it was done lacked tact (and, if such a policy exists, likely goes against the school's code on mobile phone use during class or similar school function).

The governor's office isn't looking any better on this. Sullivan's Twitter feed, prior to this week's row, only had fewer than 100 followers. It was public and open for anyone to find and search. Including Brownback's director of communications, who informed the school about the tweet. Plenty of Brownback detractors are calling the action and mere existence of saved searches scouring the web for anything mention the governor's name as akin to the thought police. While it's unclear whether the governor's office demanded the apology or school administrators suggested the idea, it's a blatant over-reaction.

If Brownback (or more appropriately his staffers) are worried about a singular insult from an 18-year-old, self-identified Democrat who plans on going to college in a different state, how the heck are they going to handle proper criticism from a serious political challenger? And if the school's administration have taken it upon themselves to mandate this letter, complete with talking points, how exactly is this a student making a sincere apology for an act of disrespect and not administrators in Kansas' second-largest school district begging Brownback to not take out his disapproval (or disdain for dissenting opinions) on their funding?

Then again, if Brownback would cut funding or demand apologies because of Tweets that lack all sense of decorum, KU's "Missouri forfeits a century-old rivalry. We win." three weeks ago should bring about a similar action, especially if today's game results in Mizzou claiming a lop-sided win on their way to the SEC East.