DIVIDE, INFORM, CONQUER!

STOP GERRYMANDERING!
Every state in the USA has a pinpointed geographic center. See them at
State Geographic Centers
Now if we took each state's geographic center and drew pie slices out to the edges of the state, the number of pie slices being the number of representatives for that state in the U.S. House of representatives, and the width of each pie slice reflecting equal numbers of the population of that state, the gerrymandering, i.e., political juggling of seats in the U.S. House by re-drawing district lines, would be eliminated; thus, fair and equal representation would result.
For example, Pennsylvania currently represents 12,604,767 citizens, and has 19 congressional districts, so each member of congress represents 663,409 citizens. If you drew lines out from the center of the state (around Bellefonte, PA) with each slice representing 663,409 citizens, then probably the Philadelphia area would have 5 slices, Pittsburgh area 4 slices, one each to Erie and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre areas, and the other eight slices would be divided among the more suburban and rural areas in the middle of the state. All according to population. There would be no more making jiggly-lined boundaries to favor or minimize populations of one stripe or another.
Seems fair. Why not do it?
Here's another alternative: Concentric circles radiating out from the same center, each section representing the same number of people (663,409), the sections starting out fatter at the middle because the population is more sparse, and thinner around the edges where the population is more dense. Same result: gerrymandering defeated. What!? You don't want to defeat gerrymandering? You must be a Republican, or a Democrat, screaming "Raw deal!" every ten years when the census mandates a re-evaluation of the democratic process and the political maneuvering takes place. One can hardly believe that the framers of the constitution intended the political juggling that takes place in the present system. Hey, we have computers now, that can pinpoint population changes and democratize the way we, the citizenry, are represented. Probably anything would be better than the current system...

HENRY'S ICE CREAM LIVES!
In the center of Port Whitman's ethnic district lies Henry's, still making our own ice cream, and issuing cracker-barrel advice to the well-intentioned and self-aggrandizing heads currently running the world:
1. Stop considering less fortunate people less than your equal.
2. There are plenty of potential consumers in the world. Why are there not more producers? Greed is bad.
3. Get rid of God as a government model. God has better things to do. Base government on practicality, not faith in the unknown.

Ev'rything's ephemeral
Only it's online now
BULLETIN: Nothing is hammered in stone anymore.
Get used to it.

THE WAR ON IGNORANCE
The USA needs to set out to conquer the world peacefully - With knowledge of what is, of what exists right now. Drop iPads instead of bombs. iPads written in the local language with subtitles in English, then eventually, only in English. Our advantage is the greatest language the world has ever known, and it's the language of the greatest communicative technology in history, the Internet. Sure would be a lot cheaper than the technology of war. Thus we win... Howzabout the U.S. Department of Promotion, promoting our way of life, such as it is, which is a whole lot better than some I can think of.
Looking in the realistic crystal ball, it's evident that the USA is gradually losing influence and money as a manufacturing entity in the world. However, we still are a communications and promotional giant. We need to become salespeople to the world, representing all the manufacturing countries, to the undeveloped countries, giving everyone on earth a way of life in which they can have the things and conveniences that we have here, and that other developed societies have. We promote, they buy, we take a commission, thus we profit, the world improves. Face it, the USA is a service society. So let's serve, and make a living at it.

Henry Francisco
Special to
The Port Whitman Times