Letters: The real reason for commissioner's complaint about St. Joseph County redistricting
I like St. Joseph County Commissioner Derek Dieter. I think he's made a lot of good decisions. I've especially appreciated him pushing back against the overreach of the St. Joseph County Health Department.
However, Dieter wrote a Viewpoint (Jan. 21) complaining about the redistricting process. He claimed the public didn't have enough say in the maps. This is where I disagree. It's hard to get citizens engaged, frankly, in most local issues. Redistricting is a complex process, and most county residents simply don't understand it or care about it.
The large number of people who showed up for the redistricting meetings were strong Democrats or Republicans, motivated by their own desires for party control — not just typical residents. The real reason Dieter is upset is not because the public was ignored; it's because his district became overwhelmingly Democratic in the redistricting process.
One of the general rules of redistricting is to keep communities of interest together. And, for that reason, it made sense to keep South Bend residents, who have their own unique city needs, together in one district. But, by doing that, Dieter's Republican seat became extremely vulnerable. That’s why he’s upset.
That being said, I still hope Dieter can win. I don't live in his district, but if I did, I'd vote for him.
Phillip Stay
Granger
Hypocrisy
A couple of months ago, The Tribune ran an article discussing the “Spirit of MLK” nominations at Lake Michigan College. Currently, if you visit the website for this college’s Mendel Center, you will see that visitors are mandated to wear masks while indoors, which would seem to indicate that the college not only honors the religious tolerance demonstrated by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but also takes precautions against COVID very seriously.
Or does it? Because in May, Lara Logan is scheduled to speak at the Mendel Center. Yes, the same Lara Logan who recently compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to infamous Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele; the same Lara Logan who was recently dropped by her talent agency for doing so. And when Logan’s comments drew the ire of the Auschwitz Museum (which noted the irony of analogizing a man seeking to save lives with one who brutally destroyed them), she did not, according to the Huffington Post, issue an apology, and instead simply blocked the museum from her Twitter account.
If the Mendel Center has no discomfort with a speaker opining that Fauci is comparable with Mengele, I think it’s only fair that Lake Michigan College now becomes synonymous with hypocrisy.
David R. Hoffman
Mishawaka
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: A general rule of redistricting: Keep communities of interest together
