For Unit 4 of my AP Human Geography course I decided to use the article “How Michigan is an Extreme Example of Gerrymandering,” by Eric Lupher. The article discusses how gerrymandering is a problem throughout the United States, but in some places the situation is much worse than others, such as Michigan. Gerrymandering is a practice intended to create political advantage for a particular party by manipulating district boundaries. This leads to less competitive elections and can lead to public distrust in our political process. Michigan's jockeying has gotten to the point where elections aren't very competitive and it was one of four states whose legislative and congressional maps were rated extreme. It also provides some insight into how redistricting determines what people can vote for. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This article links to Unit 4 because it discusses how gerrymandering and voting districts affect election results in Michigan. This topic is in the unit and you can see it in one of the Essential Knowledge for Lasting Understanding B which states, “Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering affect election outcomes on various levels.” This would make them related because voting districts and voting districts are heavily influencing elections in Michigan on a statewide scale. Elsewhere in the article we also provide some information about how gerrymandering affects the United States on a large scale. I find this topic problematic because it seems to me that gerrymandering takes away people's rights. Specifically, gerrymandering means that voters have less impact on the government and who gets elected when the people should have a huge role in who gets into government. This could lead to people's distrust of the government and I think people should be able to have trust in their government. Distrust in government could make things more difficult when passing laws or making decisions that affect people because people may not trust them not to steal from citizens for their own benefit. This article fascinated me because I had no idea what gerrymandering was or that it existed before reading this article and I love learning new things. I also like learning how elections are run because I don't understand much about it and one day I will have to, so I might as well start learning something now. Another thing that fascinated me was how the government is limiting people's impact on those in government when I feel like that shouldn't be happening, so I thought I'd like to see what was going on. To summarize, I used the article "How Michigan is an Extreme Example of Gerrymandering" for the Unit assignment 4.