Letters to the editor

Re-elect Jim Throgmorton to City Council

City Counclor Jim Throgmorton is no stranger to the University of Iowa community, having taught in the School of Urban and Regional Planning for 24 years, and he continues in his position as an emeritus professor, holding a Ph.D. from UCLA. He has lived in Iowa city for 29 years.

While he has represented District C on City Council for the past four years, his actions on council have shown him to be concerned with all of Iowa City’s citizens. You may already know that Jim is not interested in stopping development. He is concerned with making sure Iowa City will become a community for all income levels and ethnic backgrounds and abilities. This includes allowing developers to continue to operate at a profit while assuring the needs of other citizens are being met.

He is concerned with sustainable energy and maintaining our existing housing stock along with historic preservation. To do this, he has a number of steps to address what he sees as the problems facing us today, including procedural changes that will make government more open and therefore accountable to everyone.

Help Jim continue to work for positive change in Iowa City by re-electing him in the upcoming City Council elections.

Tim Weitzel

Iowa City’s serious challenges demand leaders with vision

Iowa City is a dynamic place, a place filled with talented people, lots of energy and is home to vibrant and diverse cultures and individuals. It is the people that make this place special.

That said, Iowa City has some serious challenges: decades of structural racism and classism has led IC to be one of the most segregated college towns in the nation. Poverty is high here, but many don’t see it because marginalized people are pushed to the periphery. We need a City Council that reflects the positive energy in our community. A council that sees every individual in their humanity and looks for ways we can lift them up, together, to reach their full potential in this great town. In this election, we have a real opportunity to elect a council that cares about neighborhoods and neighbors, bikes and pedestrians, and the immigrants and refugees from other lands and other places in this country, and their children, the future of our town and region.

We CAN have a council that seeks justice and fairness for all community members, not just developers and landlords, and a council that will look to the future to make all that we have better. I am casting my vote for Jim Throgmorton, Rockne Cole (at-large), John Thomas (District C) and Pauline Taylor (District A). I urge you in the strongest terms to do the same on or before Nov 3.

Matthew Peirce

Republican hypocrisy on Benghazi

With this week’s Benghazi hearings underway, let’s see how the Bush administration fared.

Jan. 22,2002 — U.S. Embassy at Kolkata, 5 killed.

June 14, 2002 — U.S. Consulate at Karachi, 12 killed.

Feb. 28, 2003 — U.S. Embassy at Islamabad, 2 killed.

June 30, 2004 — U.S. Embassy at Tashkent, 2 killed.

Dec. 6, 2004 — U.S. compound in Saudi Arabia, 9 killed.

March 2, 2006 — U.S. Consulate in Karachi, 2 killed.

Sept. 12, 2006 — U.S. Embassy in Damascus, 4 killed.

March 18, 2008 – U.S. Embassy in Yemen, 2 killed.

July 9, 2008 — U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, 6 killed.