We shortened our name and created a new website, and we are more determined than ever to #EndGerrymandering. America is counting on us.
From Team Lead Debbie Patel. In January 2021 a group called Grassroots North Shore created a strictly nonpartisan issue team to help #EndGerrymandering. Because I was a plaintiff in the Whitford v Gill partisan gerrymandering lawsuit and am familiar with the issue, I was asked to lead the team. I jumped at the chance to help #EndGerrymandering! The issues team, called Grassroots North Shore Fair Maps, grew quickly. By April we were ready to stand and grow on our own, as North Shore Fair Maps. We remain a strictly nonpartisan group of citizens out to #EndGerrymandering.
We needed a website. I call it a place to “put our stuff.” Welcome to our new website!
This website is where the public – that means you! – can go to see what we have done, are doing, and want to do. And why. You can learn more by opening our tabs and reading our pages and our posts. We are an all-volunteer citizen group. We are strictly nonpartisan (I cannot say it enough!) and draw folks from different political perspectives. We stand on common ground: a bridge that connects across the political divide.
Our home page theme is the American flag opening to a deep blue space. The minute I saw this photo I saw Lake Michigan, with Wisconsin on its western shore. The fold of the flag is Milwaukee. Don’t see it? No worries, so far I am the only one who has! But you can see our American flag. The one we all pledge allegiance to, no matter our political affiliation.
When we pledge allegiance to our flag, we also pledge allegiance to the republic for which it stands. A republic is a government “in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.” (Miriam-Webster dictionary).
Wisconsin is also a republic. As stated in Article I Section 1 of our State Constitution:
“All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (emphasis added).”
When voters cast their ballots, they collectively consent. They have chosen the “representatives responsible to them.” But because of partisan gerrymandering, representatives now choose their voters instead of the other way around. Voters still vote. Their votes are counted. But because of gerrymandering, their votes don’t count. That is not representative democracy. It is no way to run a republic. It is bad government. And it is un-American.
We must #EndGerrymandering. The State of Wisconsin and our United States depend on it.
Regardless your personal politics, we hope you feel as strongly as we do that gerrymandering is tearing apart the threads of our republic. If you want to #EndGerrymandering, we invite you to check back here frequently. Take Action. Attend events. We are working hard to engage, inform, and activate. Join us!