If you click, you might be able to see the names of the towns in this strangely-shaped election district: Salem, Chelsea, Haverhill, Andover, etc.I am so proud to live in Massachusetts! Wherever on Planet Earth parliaments and legislatures draw and re-draw voting districts for democratic elections, they speak in reverent hushed tones of my Governor Elbridge Gerry, and the Salamander-shaped voting district he created before an 1812 Senate election!
I think my new 2nd Congressional District looks like a camel. What creature or beast do you see? Please Leave A Comment.
btw you pronounce Gerrymander with a soft G, but Gerry himself used a hard G for his name. I have no idea where the heck "Elbridge" came from, it's certainly not in the Old Testament.
Gerry pops up in American history twice. Every schoolchild (except the Home Schoolers) has to spend a day learning about the XYZ Affair, a US diplomatic mission to France in which our diplomats were being forced to bribe French government officials before they'd let them get on with their diplomatic business. Or something like that -- that test in junior high school was a long time ago. Anyway, Gerry was either X or Y or Z.
Actually this season I sincerely am extremely proud to live in Massachusetts, and maybe I'll get around to posting about the source of my local pride soon. My Massachusetts got something right now that no other USA state has! (HINT: It's not the Red Sox.)
