UNITE MURRYSVILLE NORDENBERGERING
Mr. Chairman, Majority and Minority Leaders, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Jill Cooper and I live in Murrysville a community of about 30 miles east if Pittsburgh. I am an engaged volunteer in my community having served on my county workforce investment board, chamber, adult school board, economic and community development board and I am an activist for smaller smarter government. Today, I am addressing you as a volunteer who cares deeply about my community and state. My message is simple – UNITE MURRYSVILLE! The Preliminary map splits the Municipality of Murrysville between 2 state legislators. I am not just here to complain to you without a solution. There is an easy fix to UNITE MURRYSVILLE. The Murrysville municipal split can be eliminated with no other map changes and without causing any other harm. If the commission would move Salem Township to the 56th and then return all of Murrysville and Export in the 55th it would solve this unnecessary municipal split AND any population requirement. Population is nearly identical under the preliminary map and with what I am suggesting. Under the preliminary map the 55th has 1311 over standard, 65,464 Under the preliminary map the 56th has 372 over standards, 64,424 Under the UNITE MURRYSVILLE MAP the 55th has 1345 people over standard, 65,398 AND the 56TH has 338 people over standard, 64,391. Effectively, this net change between the maps would be zero. This is not impacting Salem's representation, as Salem is currently in neither the 55th or the 56, but is instead in the 57th. In terms of compactness, the UNITE MURRYSVILLE MAP is also a more sensible option verses splitting Murrysville. Our town had to live with being spit for a decade and we were fortunate enough and grateful to have it rectified in the 2011 map. It is confusing for the citizens to know which representative to seek help from based on where they live. One neighbor uses on representative and the next neighbor another. It is chaos. I would like to spend the next few minutes talking about “fairness”. The word FAIR is a tricky word. We use it with our children, we teach it to them at a young age, and we were taught to be fair when we were children. We do this so that we raise our children to treat people the way that they would want to be treated. It’s a word that has meaning, believe me, it elicits strong emotion because it taps into our childhood. We are taught at a young age to feel guilt if we are unfair. Because of this, my life experience tells me that the word FAIR is often a tool used to manipulate. People use it to get what they want while making the person giving it feel guilt if they do not agree. I spent many years negotiating contracts and the moment someone used the word FAIR, it was a red flag because it nearly always meant that they were trying to coerce me into agreeing to something that I should not! Mr. Chairman, you are a good man. Smart, well-spoken, and I believe have the best interests of all in mind. I have no doubt about that. Ask yourself if the people who actually drew this map township by township, city by city, street by street have the same level of integrity as you. Because when this process is over and the maps are finalized, no matter what they look like there will be battles in our courts, in our media, and in political campaigns for years to come. The people who drew these maps will not be on the front page, their names will be forgotten. Mr. Chairman, fair or not, the legacy of these maps will be yours. The other members of this commission are only doing their job to protect their respective caucuses. The people of this state are counting on you, Sir, to rise above the fray of the divisiveness that pervades our communities, schools, and dinner tables. I already hear people saying that the word gerrymandering will now be replace with Nordenbergering. I cringe when I hear that but those people likely feel that its only way to push back when they see this as a very one sided process, rigged against them. These maps will be your legacy alone Chancellor Nordenberg ---- Do you want PA to be Nordenbergering? We can do better. Demand better. Mr. Chairman, Majority and Minority Leaders please Unite Murrysville and please do better and demand better for all of Pennsylvania Thank you. https://davesredistricting.org/join/4c3bf3be-e104-4ee1-b4e6-763cb961b23f