Letters/Interactions

FEATURING THE BLACK FUSIONIST SOCIETY A TRANSMEDIA HISTORICAL FICTION DIGITAL PROJECT BY ANTOINE WILLIAMS

VISIT: LETTERS

LV encourages community members, including candidates for office, to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

I HAVE LEARNED more about Iowa City in the past two weeks than the two decades prior to this. I bought the myth of Iowa City as a progressive town. I would watch and sometimes participate in protests where liberal choirs preach liberal sermons, sometimes vehemently, and then everyone goes home. The desire for change is exhausted in voicing it. Nothing changes.

Watching the Iowa City Council meeting on June 9 was informative. The council discussed the demands made by the Iowa Freedom Riders. The bulk of the two-hour meeting focused on how to create the image of an Iowa City that respected all of its citizens. The council literally discussed painting streets and creating a mural. The discussion of new policies to reform the police was similar: it would be a show of support that would ultimately only support the status quo. This status quo falls short of being anti-racist, even if individual persons do not see themselves as racists.

The Black Lives Matter movement is committed to allowing all humans to flourish. It wishes to liberate everyone: oppressed and oppressors. This message is communicated in each of the protests. Protesters are fed, litter is cleaned, water is offered: genuine care abounds.

Elected officials have marched, talked, worked, listened, spoken. These conversations too often reflect the world of 2019, not the future that invites us. I want to join the Iowa Freedom Riders to ask the city council to commit to change.

I want to live in a city that values life over property. I want to live in a city so deeply committed to its anti-racism that it transforms

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the lives of those who come to town for a game, or a show, or a festival.

Let us lead Iowa to becoming known as an anti-racist state, rather than a home to racists. Instead of focusing on the “eight can’t wait” policies embraced by the mayor toward prison reform, let us try the eight to abolition that foregrounds the needs of vulnerable populations and leads to a healthier city. Far from anti-police, the BLM movement advocates defunding and disarming law enforcement in a way that seems pro-police. Such policies would give police their humanity back, allow them vulnerability and compassion. This would enable them to greet and guard the dignity and worth of those at the margins of our community.

Let us embody our reputation, rather than performing it. Disavow the privilege bestowed by chasing white ideals, and embrace the love that comes from another kind of community.

Thank you, Iowa Freedom Riders. —Daniel Boscaljon

‘When is enough enough?’ Hundreds gather in Iowa City to remember George Floyd and other victims of racism and police violence

(May 31)

We are lucky to have strong leaders like Royceann Porter, Bruce Teague, and Mazahir Salih guiding our city! —Stephanie C.

We do not deserve peace until we can END police brutality. I am thankful for you [Royceann Porter] AND your language as well as your message: “F-ING enough.” I have seen recorded and televised police brutality against black men my whole life (remembering Rodney King in the ’90s). Maybe the cost of systemic racism and police brutality allowed for generations is an establishment in ashes. —Annalee M.

Coralville imposes a curfew, which Gov. Reynolds says are needed to stop ‘distractors’

from causing chaos (June 1)

What a joke. Using Walmart being vandalized as an excuse to enforce a police state and try to strip away constitutional rights … Vandalism

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