Gerrymandering

                                                           

Elbridge Gerry

ABC WEDNESDAY

GERRYMANDERING

Not a very appealing face, I'm sure you must agree.

His Saturnine expression is hardly filled with glee!

Not exactly a villain, a manipulator, rather,

But the way he manipulated put everyone in a lather!

It happened in America, but the term is used world-wide;

It's been spoken a thousand times ever since he died!

In the early eighteen-hundreds Elbridge rose to fame;

He governed Massachusts; everyone knew his name.

He wanted his party, the Democrats, to win the next election,

And so he altered electoral boundaries according to his selection.
Cartoonists noted the shape thus formed and called it a 'salamander'

While commentators derided it with gusto and with candour!

An actual salamander

A cartoonist's version!

'Gerry's Salamander' was spoken of far and wide

Then changed to 'Gerrymander'  and frequently applied!

The 'G' came to be softened (it was hard in the actual name)

But that's how Elbridge Gerry attained his lasting fame.

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Quote:

"In 1812 the word "gerrymander" was coined when the Massachusetts legislature redrew the boundaries of state legislative districts to favor Governor Gerry's party. The Governor's strategy was to encompass most of the state's Federalists, allowing them to win in that district while his party, the Democratic-Republicans, took control of all the other districts in the state. The term eventually became part of world political vocabulary, and is still in use today"

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TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

New Growth on a Gum Tree

SUBTLE SPRING

Spring sings a wild cantata as it surges through the blood,

As the snowdrops and the daffodils rise out of the slush and mud.

But that's in another country, where Winter takes a hold

With snow and sleet and icy winds and the greyness and the cold.

Here, in our Southern country, Spring tiptoes in, quite shy.

We hardly feel it coming; it could almost pass us by.

Oh yes, the birds are singing, but they've whistled all along;

Though there's now a nesting urgency in the music of their song.

Oh yes, the trees are in full leaf, but our trees are always green;

Bare trees are simply not a part of the true Australian scene.

Oh yes, the flowers are growing, and they're seasonal, it's true,

But right through the chilly winter, some hardy flowers grew.

And so our Spring is subtle; there is no bursting forth,

No passionate explosion as in April in the North.

First comes the golden wattle, then jacaranda's blue;

They add a touch of drama, when the season is quite new,

But the sign of Spring that captures me and thrills me when it comes

Is the pink tinge of new growth we see on the eucalypts, our gums.

I miss the Springs of my childhood, I always will, I think,

But 'My heart leaps up when I behold' our subtlety of pink.

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