Has anyone ever referred to part of Butler County as East Butler County and West Butler County?

Was there ever a wall built to separate those on the east side, closer to Armstrong County, from escaping to the greener pastures of West Butler County?

No armed guards and no barbed wire or gun towers can be seen. The only people that imagine a separation of the county are the geniuses in charge of congressional redistricting.

The first rule for the establishing of districts should be county boundaries. It is just plain stupid to split up any county, and that starts with Butler County. That rule by itself would go a long way toward stopping the predictable, every post-census scramble to realign districts to be an advantage for one political party or the other.

Of course, the party in charge each time will swear they aren’t trying to gain an advantage, but as Colonel Sherman Potter would say, “horse hockey.” It is a traditional part of politics, but now that part of the game is to split up counties, townships and neighborhoods, we say: enough is enough.

Nothing is more sensible than having counties be intact as far as representation of elected officials.

Oops, there we go: trying to be sensible in the political world. That begs another of the good Colonel’s quotes from TV’s “MASH” — “pig feathers” — if anyone can’t see the common-sense reasons to leave county boundaries be the basis for representation.

— RV