TCAN

[From time to time our blog features diverse voices in addition to our regular contributors from the TCAN staff and board. This one comes from TCAN intern Jonathan Panzer, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in government and history.]

Those of you who know me know that I’m a gamer at heart. Ever since I was a young lad I have loved video and computer games as a way to relax and live out fantasies of my own. It was a way for me to engage the world in a manner that I might never have the opportunity to in reality. My tastes have changed over the years, going from Mega Man and Mario Brothers on the Nintendo to the more modern games on the latest systems and computers. But recently my tastes have developed to where all of the games I play now have either a historical theme or a practical political orientation. I want to see the world that I live in and what would happen if I were to have the power to grab hold of the world and change it to my liking (yes, I realize that that is a little megalomaniacal, but it’s my post, so :p ).

For a long time I was hooked on a computer game called The Political Machine, which I highly recommend. But I’ve recently discovered something new that will surely destroy my grades even more than my Darfur advocacy or my penchant for clean government. I was researching the news alert that my co-intern Punam and I prepare daily for the TCAN staff and board yesterday when I happened to come across a story out of California of a new game that was developed by USC students. Now, I realize that most of them are still in shock over UT spanking USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl, so I wanted to see what they have been up to between the tears falling into their beer. And wouldn’t you know it — those USC kids actually do some quality work!

They developed The Redistricting Game, which is quite possibly the best educational tool around for teaching people about the incredibly complex world of redistricting. In this game, you are responsible for redistricting certain areas to meet certain demands, all along making sure that your party bosses, the incumbents, the opposition, the general public, the governor, the state house, and the courts all like your bill.

At each level you must meet a set of criteria, and those criteria differ with each mission you must complete. The missions vary in difficulty and complexity and really give a wonderful and powerful insight into how important fair redistricting is to the governing process. At one level you must meet the general population requirements (650 - 640,000) per district. At another you are a partisan “hack” who wants to create a new red/blue district.

I could go on and on for hours explaining and using (which I have) this amazing tool. But as if it weren’t enough that this game gives incredibly useful information and insight into the process itself, it also offers ways for individuals to get involved in the process by offering links to help individuals find out how the process works in their own state, current information on legislation in the U.S. House — like Jon Tanner’s (D-Tennessee) Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act (FAIR Act) — and links to other websites that have similar concerns with redistricting.

All in all, this is amazing. I have never seen a more interactive and entertaining educational tool that engages and shows just how important this issue is. The Redistricting Game should be used in every high school and U.S. government class in America and in every activist community to teach the people of America just how important open, honest, and fair redistricting really is to the governing process. I know TCAN hopes to incorporate it into some of its Participatory Democracy presentations.

So Mazel Tov to USC; you might not be the best at football but you do make a mean video game. Now if you will excuse me … I need to finish redistricting the State of Jefferson … Vince Shionary is being a pain, and his district is starting to look like TX CD-21.

by Jonathan Panzer, TCAN intern