Seminar — “The Mathematics of Partisan Gerrymandering”

This Sunday after our fall break I had the fortunate opportunity to be able to attend the College of Arts and Sciences wonderful ‘Science Sunday’ Seminars on the the topic of Mathematics and Gerrymandering, one of the most complex, disheartening issues on the terms of political geography. You know, border gore is hilarious until you realize people live there. With all the politics in my blog, you’d think I’m a political science major, but alas. To me, its just more entertaining to go out and explore — if I’m going to be an engineer, I would be doing myself a disservice by looking at only engineering when there is such beautiful things out there in our world to explore. While I love the way engineering makes me think, I yearn for a good play. While I love the complexity of physics, I can’t help but get excited when I see a beautifully written argument or thesis. Humanity and I have a love-hate relationship, somedays it can make me really proud, and others, well–we have such a great opportunity to make it better. Alas, life wouldn’t be so interesting without a challenge.

 

Anyways, Science Sundays-Partisan Gerrymandering. The room itself was packed with your expected audience:  politicians, lobbyists, and your occasional graduate student. Everyone in the room knew their stuff, and they would ask very pressing questions to the presenter. The content itself was also presented beautifully, it was entertaining, it was simple, but at its apex– it was hard to swallow. From my initial perspective, I had a very positive output towards gerrymandering, that it was simply a couple of bad nuts who made the the situation worse for everyone, however, in actuality, it is 100 times easier to gerrymander accidentally than it is to avoid gerrymandering. Politics are complicated, really really complicated. The concept of a ‘constituent’ is sort of marginalized — people have a hard time understanding that for every voter lays someone with an identity, a vision, an idea, a life. They are an adult, much like you and I. They have made mistakes, with not all of them accounted for. They have loved or loved, they had a mom and dad, they got into fights, they have an opinion, they eat a meal every day, take a shower, brush their teeth, live, breath, smell, smile, cry, be. They are a person. Now, multiply that person with  all these attributes and experiences by 350 million, and you have the American Population; a jumbled mess of experiences, hardships, guilt, success, and identity. Its complicated. Democracy in itself is hard. No matter what, 1 out of those 350 million people will be left in the dust in our democracy, and that is simply a fact we have to acknowledge. Minimizing that number, however, is democracies goal, and it warms my heart to see all the progress that the world of science and mathematics is putting in to ensure a bright future for us as citizens of the United States. After going to this seminar, I do believe I am going to go to the next one they will be hosting this Sunday. I love to learn, and with my Sundays so jam packed full of homework, giving my mind a time to think elsewhere is something I can always look forward to.