Vote for new ideas, vote for Zimmerman

How would the world advance if we never voted for someone with new ideas? Should we choose experience and forget justice?

When the Johnson County Attorney's office makes a plea deal to drop a felony charge of violating the Drug Tax Stamp law in exchange for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession, that is exercising discretion. If a felony charge can be dropped, then a simple possession charge can be dropped. Fines bring in money and those who believe smoking marijuana is wrong are smugly satisfied. Is justice served when the motivation is to make money or suit one's moral sensibilities?

Racial profiling has suddenly become an issue that the current county attorney says she wants to address. Where was she a year ago when the ACLU report came out showing that Johnson County's record is one of the worst for racial disparity in the arrests and prosecutions for marijuana?

John Zimmerman is 46 and went to law school when he was 45 because he wanted to make the justice system apply equally to everyone passing through it - including minorities, the poor, students and sexual assault victims. That is certainly a laudable goal. Experience pales in comparison to justice in the administration of one's duties.

I voted for John Zimmerman for county attorney and urge readers to do the same.

Latisha McDaniel

Iowa City