This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Virginia General Assembly article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
How can it be the oldest legislative body in the Western hemisphere when the House of Commons was formed in C14? Surely, that is ~200yrs older? 86.63.24.72 ( talk) 22:51, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
Wikipedia includes the UK in it's definition of "Western Hemisphere" so I guess that deals with this point nicely. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.16.253.107 ( talk) 13:21, 9 February 2013 (UTC)
"This is an American Topic" does that mean they invented vaccination, the steam engine, and discovered electricity now?. The UK parliament is West of the Greenwich Meridian, i.e. the only definition of "Western Hemisphere" which is based on demonstrable fact. Wikipedia shouldn't be a place where loose use of language is permitted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.16.253.107 ( talk) 13:14, 9 February 2013 (UTC)
The intended meaning of Western Hemisphere in the article appears [to me] to violate Wikipedia policy. With the most limiting American political rhetoric definition, the Virginia General Assembly claim is still demonstrably wrong. Even using the most politically modified USA redefinition (of those cited
here), the Western Hemisphere would start at 20º West of the
Prime Meridian. The
Icelandic parliamentary body
Althing was originally located in
Thingvellir (21º 07' W) and is now in
Rekjavik (21º 58' W). It is thus indisputably in the Western Hemisphere by all definitions. It is over 1,000 years old. This is approximately equal to the combined sum of ages of Jamestown Island, Williamsburg and Richmond in Virginia. I therefore suggest using a less ambiguous, less controversial phrase:
Or perhaps the phrase "... in the New World" is preferred. This conveys a [verifiable/neutral] fact without inciting a revolution. It isn't just misuse of the word Western in the phrase, but the version starting at 20º West apparently ends at 160º West, so it isn't a hemisphere (half a sphere) either! There is no American consensus of precise definition. Verifiability requires preciseness, and the term is obviously not neutral. This seems to violate two of Wikipedia's three core content policies WP:V and WP:NPOV. ChrisJBenson ( talk) 23:35, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
Done. I also made the same change to the same text in the Virginia article. ChrisJBenson ( talk) 04:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
@ Instaurare: deleted an entire consensus section on “Redistricting reform” with the rationale: “this is wp:undue for a topic about a 400 year old legislature.” -- I’ve restored it, and opened this Talk section for further discussion. — The section topic is not OVER-emphasized here, it is UNDER-represented.
Subsections should include:
a) ===Colonial mal-apportionment===, featuring an expansion of Thomas Jefferson’s discussion of the 1:16 advantage of eastern white males over those west of the Blue Ridge in his Notes on Virginia, and discussed in Sean Wilentz, “The Rise of American Democracy”, etc.
b) ===Antebellum reform movements===, featuring a discussion of the petitions, demonstration, western conventions, Assembly floor fights leading up to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850.
c) ===Mid-twentieth century redistricting reform===, featuring Assembly responses to Virginia Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court rulings related to Congressional Districts and Assembly Districts.
d) ===Twenty-first century reform movements===, including the restored passage. TheVirginiaHistorian ( talk) 15:42, 1 February 2019 (UTC)