Somewhere in Anyville

By Nana Dadzie Ghansah

Anyville is a fictional city of about 150,000 people somewhere in the Midwest. It is divided into northern and southern halves by a beautiful lake that sits right in the city’s middle.
Due to the popularity of high school and college sports in the city and surrounding county, the mayor of Anyville asked for a sports complex from the City Council. He received unanimous support.

The first hint of trouble arose when the question came up about where to build the complex. Due to the lake, it could not be built in the center of the city. So it had to be built either in the northern part of the town or in the south. The Northerners wanted it. So did the southerners. Soon the folks from both parts of the city had formed groups to canvass for support to have the complex built on their side of the city. Then another group arose. This third group did not want the complex at all. They thought it was a pure waste of money. A fourth group was also formed. It wanted the complex built outside the city for environmental reasons.
Finally, the city council decided to organize a referendum to allow the people to vote on the best option among the four views.

You see, what happened in Anyville regarding where to build the complex is what we call “politics.” Created out of Aristotle’s work, Politiká…