Let's have a well-rounded discussion about the state legislative redistricting process.

Members of the Illinois House Redistricting Committee are scheduled to be at the Tony Noel Agricultural Technology Center at Parkland College Saturday afternoon to listen to testimony about how state legislative redistricting lines should be drawn for the 2012 election.

Committee members are certainly welcome here, and it's particularly important that local groups with an interest in the redistricting process tell them what they think.

But as pleased as we are to have legislators come to listen to people talk about what they'd like to see in a new map, it would be even better if the legislators returned once they have a proposed map. Then various groups and individuals could respond with concrete suggestions or criticisms instead of speaking in generalities.

Most people do not pay much attention to the process known as redistricting or reapportionment. That's too bad because the political map that is drawn will govern political appearances in Illinois for the next 10 years.

Redistricting is the once-every-10-year process by which local, state and federal legislative district boundary lines are drawn to reflect new census numbers.

State legislators are in the process of drawing boundary lines for 59 state Senate districts and 118 House districts.

There's a lot of cynicism surrounding the process because, despite the rhetoric about open and honest government, the majority party has historically rigged the map-drawing process to put the minority party at a disadvantage.

That's why it's especially important that various individuals and groups be heard not just before the maps are drawn, but afterwards as well.

It's no secret that Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan want to draw boundary lines in a way that will guarantee their party a huge majority in the Legislature. But this process ought to be about the broad public interest, not the narrow political interest of either Republicans or Democrats.

One way to ensure that partisan interests are restrained is to provide the public with ample opportunity to be heard both before and after the maps are presented for legislative action.