Look first to your own back yard

Gazette Editorial Board

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It may have been a noble impulse that drove Iowa City Council member Jim Throgmorton to propose a resolution expressing councilor's “dismay and outrage” over the February shooting death of a 17-year-old Florida teen.

After all, the death of Trayvon Martin has resonated with a number of Iowans - touching on important questions of justice, gun rights and race.

But while it's proper for local elected officials to send a collective message to state legislators about their stand on “stand your ground” legislation that may be under consideration, we feel it's less important for councilors to formally register their disapproval of the Florida case.

After all, it may have been Martin's death that prompted hundreds of people to don hooded sweat shirts and march on the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall last month, but it was personal stories of racism and profiling they had to share once there.

Councilor's priority should be addressing the dynamics of distrust and misunderstanding that persist here in our own communities.

That will take more concerted and practical efforts than are called for in Throgmorton's suggested resolution calling for the people of Iowa City “to reject racism and racist behavior in all its forms, to follow the truth wherever it leads, and to do everything possible to ensure racial, ethnic and economic justice in our city.”

“The fact that a young man is black, wears a hoodie, and is walking in a predominantly white neighborhood does not necessarily mean he is dangerous or has done anything wrong,” Throgmorton wrote to fellow council members earlier this month. That's clear.

But even though we've, luckily, avoided an incident as dramatic as the Martin case, area residents say it's a lesson we still need to learn here in The Corridor.

If Iowa City councilors want to confront the issues that have been raised by Martin's case, they should dedicate their efforts to finding out more about those local complaints and how they might be addressed.

Throgmorton is right - the death of Trayvon Martin has deeply affected a lot of Iowans.

But that's true at least in part because they see similar dynamics playing out daily in their own backyards.

That's where council should look for change.

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