Where in the hell is the 12th District anyway?

Pat Tiberi, U.S. Congressman from the 12th District, wrote a significant column, published on the WCLT web site. He tells how congress has been spending time, wasting money, and spinning wheels. It's certainly worth a read if you haven't already done so. Here's the link.

Anyway, reading Tiberi's stuff cued my interest in just how far away from where I live is this man's Congressional kingdom. Not a simple search, Google notwithstanding.

In fact, I was all over the Internet until I finally found a map that will show you, street by street, where you live, Congressional-District-wise. Here's the link for that.



You will notice that the Congressional District map through Newark is pure bureaucratic poetry, and God only knows how much it cost to get a legion of our public employees to figure this thing out. Would that they could be so useful on real problems.

Its just plain stupid to run the line between two districts right through the City of Newark because: 1) you don't know where either district begins and ends unless you're lucky enough to have the above Internet link, and worse, 2) Newark's needs from the federal government are just half as likely to be met with two Representatives supposedly working on it instead of one.



Zack's kingdom stretches from Newark's east side to Amish country to the north, through the fields and forests of Appalachian Southeastern Ohio, almost to the Ohio River. It includes Mt. Vernon, New Philly, Zanesville and Chillicothe - places like Newark.



But Pat's 12th district "includes the heavily African-American part of Ohio's capital city, Columbus, Ohio along with its northern suburbs, including Westerville," (in the words of Wikipedia) - places very unlike Newark.

This Congressional District mess only intensifies the confusion and inefficiency of an already-impossible system for good communication to, and representation from, Washington.