I did not want the end to come while he was still in the hospital. In the seven years since his first bowel resection, I’d come to know—and to hate—the small hospital just minutes from my parents’ home on Long Island. When he was first diagnosed in 2001, I lived in Massachusetts and would make the drive down to spend the long days in those rooms. But in 2005, I moved back to Long Island to be closer to him. Semiprivate, they called the rooms, though there is nothing semiprivate about watching another patient retch or vomit just inches away. They all looked the same, no matter which wing, all painted in the crème color that is meant to be calming, all with two beds and two metalto follow.

We, the League of Women Voters presidents in southern, traditionally gerrymandered states, welcome the efforts of Virginians to set a standard of fairness for all voters.

Signed,

Deb Wake, president, League of Women Voters of Virginia

Christy Wheeler and Carol Anderson, co-presidents, League of Women Voters of Mississippi

Christe McCoy-Lawrence and Holley Ulbrich, co-presidents, League of Women Voters of South Carolina

Carol Moon Goldberg, president, League of Women Voters of California

Barbara Caddell, president, League of Women Voters of Alabama

Jo Nichols, president, League of Women Voters of North Carolina.

The League of Women Voters has created the People Powered Fair Maps™ campaign: a 50-state (and the District of Columbia) plan to combat gerrymandering and put power back in the hands of voters.