2008 Woodie Awards
We're in a water war with Georgia
Tennessee's neighbor is in a drought; they want our state's resources
Preston MacDougall
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Opinions
The Peach State is in a parched state and is trying to poach from my state. This is not a playground tongue-twister, but a developing news story involving the state legislatures of Georgia and Tennessee.
Unless you're watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you don't normally associate state legislatures with playgrounds. But there's a gigantic water fight going on right now between the states of Georgia and Tennessee.
Instead of throwing water balloons, legislators are lobbing resolutions concerning the relative locations of the Tennessee River and the Georgia-Tennessee borderline.
You can see what all the political splashing is about by taking a quick trip in cyberspace. If you go to mapquest.com, enter TN for the state, then click "search" for maps, you'll see why Tennesseans try to be good neighbors -we have eight of them.
If you drag Chattanooga so that it is just to the right of the center of your computer screen, and zoom-in until you can see street names, you'll see that the borderline separating Tennessee from both Alabama and Georgia is as straight as a geodesic arrow. It was planned that way. The problem is, it isn't where it's supposed to be.
After South Carolina ceded territorial claims in 1787, the 35th parallel (north) was decreed to be the borderline between Georgia and North Carolina.
In 1796, it also became the border between Georgia and the new state of Tennessee, which was an integration of North Carolina's western territories.
National and state boundaries are like lines of latitude and longitude in that they didn't exist until politicians and geographers decided they had practical value and invented them.
The difference is that drawing lines of latitude and longitude is an act of geometry, whereas drawing boundaries often constitutes an act of war.
In a sense, mathematics can still have a role, since war can be avoided if the diplomats involved are skilled geometers, and can bloodlessly "triangulate" the interests of all parties.
Unless you're watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you don't normally associate state legislatures with playgrounds. But there's a gigantic water fight going on right now between the states of Georgia and Tennessee.
Instead of throwing water balloons, legislators are lobbing resolutions concerning the relative locations of the Tennessee River and the Georgia-Tennessee borderline.
You can see what all the political splashing is about by taking a quick trip in cyberspace. If you go to mapquest.com, enter TN for the state, then click "search" for maps, you'll see why Tennesseans try to be good neighbors -we have eight of them.
If you drag Chattanooga so that it is just to the right of the center of your computer screen, and zoom-in until you can see street names, you'll see that the borderline separating Tennessee from both Alabama and Georgia is as straight as a geodesic arrow. It was planned that way. The problem is, it isn't where it's supposed to be.
After South Carolina ceded territorial claims in 1787, the 35th parallel (north) was decreed to be the borderline between Georgia and North Carolina.
In 1796, it also became the border between Georgia and the new state of Tennessee, which was an integration of North Carolina's western territories.
National and state boundaries are like lines of latitude and longitude in that they didn't exist until politicians and geographers decided they had practical value and invented them.
The difference is that drawing lines of latitude and longitude is an act of geometry, whereas drawing boundaries often constitutes an act of war.
In a sense, mathematics can still have a role, since war can be avoided if the diplomats involved are skilled geometers, and can bloodlessly "triangulate" the interests of all parties.
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