[Scene]
C.J.: Hi, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to be late.

FALLOW: Not a problem.

C.J.: I'm C.J. Craig.

FALLOW: Of course you are. I'm Dr. John Fallow. This is Dr. Cynthia Sayles [C.J. and Sayles shake hands], and Professor Donald Huke. [C.J. and Huke shake hands]

C.J.: Huke?

HUKE: Huke.

C.J.: Okay, and you are the Organizations of Cartographers for Social Equality.

FALLOW: Well, we're from the OCSE. We have many members.

C.J.: How many?

FALLOW: 4300 dues paid members.

C.J.: What are the dues?

FALLOW: 20 dollars a year for the newsletter.

C.J.: Let's start. [Enter Josh]
JOSH: Wait. Wait, I want to see this.

C.J.: This is Josh Lyman

FALLOW: Indeed you are.

C.J.: This is Josh Fallow.

JOSH: Hi.

C.J.: And his merrymen. [Josh shakes their hands] Shall we begin?

FALLOW: Yes. [C.J. and Josh sit down]

FALLOW: Plain and simple, we'd like President Bartlet to aggressively support legislation that would make it mandatory for every public school in America to teach geography using the Peters Projection Map instead of the traditional Mercator.

JOSH: Give me 200 bucks and it's done.

HUKE: Really?

C.J.: No. Why are we changing maps?

SAYLES: Because, C.J., the Mercator Projection has fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries and created an ethnic bias against a Third World.

C.J.: Really? [Fallow brings the map up on the projector.]
FALLOW: The German cartographer, Mercator, originally designed this map in 1569 as a navigational tool for European sailors.

HUKE: The map enlarges areas at the poles to create straight lines of constant bearing or geographic direction.

SAYLES: So, it makes it easier to cross an ocean.

FALLOW: But...

C.J.: Yes?

FALLOW: It distorts the relative size of nations and continents.

C.J.: Are you saying the map is wrong?

FALLOW: Oh, dear, yes. Uh, look at Greenland.

C.J.: Okay...

FALLOW: Now look at Africa.

C.J.: Okay...

FALLOW: The two landmasses appear to be roughly the same size.

C.J.: Yes.
FALLOW: Would it blow your mind if I told you that Africa is in reality fourteen times larger? [Josh nudges C.J. with his knee, C.J. pushes him back.]

C.J.: Yes.

SAYLES: Here we have Europe drawn considerably larger than South America when at 6.9 million square miles South America is almost double the size of Europe's 3.8 million.

HUKE: Alaska appears three times as large as Mexico, when Mexico is larger by 0.1 million square miles.

SAYLES: Germany appears in the middle of the map when it's in the northernmost quarter of the Earth.

JOSH: Wait, wait. Relative size is one thing, but you're telling me that Germany isn't where we think it is?

FALLOW: Nothing's where you think it is.

C.J.: Where is it?

FALLOW: I'm glad you asked. The Peters Projection. [C.J. and Josh lean forward.]

SAYLES: It has fidelity of axis.

HUKE: Fidelity of position.

SAYLES: East-west lines are parallel and intersect north-south axes at right angles.

C.J.: What the hell is that?

FALLOW: It's where you've been living this whole time. Should we continue?

JOSH: Uh-huh.

[Scene]

FALLOW: So, uh... You're probably wondering what all this has to do with social equality?

C.J.: No. I'm wondering where France really is. [Josh joins C.J., standing.]

JOSH: Guys, we want to thank you very much for coming in...

C.J.: Hang on. We're going to finish this.

JOSH: Okay.

HUKE: What do maps have to do with social equality, you ask?

JOSH: She asked.

HUKE: Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for Social Studies argues "In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance, and even power". [Josh and C.J. exchange looks.]

JOSH: I'm going to check in on Toby.

C.J.: Go.

JOSH: These guys find Brigadoon on that map you'll call me, right?

C.J.: Probably not.

JOSH: Okay. [Exit Josh]

FALLOW: When Third World countries are misrepresented they're likely to be valued less. When Mercator maps exaggerate the importance of Western civilization, when the top of the map is given to the northern hemisphere and the bottom is given to the southern... then people will tend to adopt top and bottom attitudes.

C.J.: But... wait. How-- Where else could you put the Northern Hemisphere but on the top?

SAYLES: On the bottom.

C.J.: How?

FALLOW: Like this. [The map is flipped over.]

C.J.: Yeah, but you can't do that.

FALLOW: Why not?

C.J.: 'Cause it's freaking me out.