Discrimination Archives » Lynda Waddington

28Feb 2018 by Lynda Waddington

Anamosa police chief ouster is a good start

Gazette Column

Anamosa’s police chief was released from duty Monday night with little fanfare. It’s the beginning, but hardly the end, of a lengthy trail of community distrust. Following years of largely unchecked inappropriate behavior by former chief Bob Simonson, city officials seemed determined to make the process of his termination as low-key as possible. Council members held a closed session Monday afternoon to discuss Simonson’s transgressions and consider a proposed retirement agreement. Back in public view, council formally rejected further negotiations and then quickly voted to adjourn without additional explanation or discussion. Two hours later, when the body met again in regular session, the agenda was shuffled. The first action item was a motion for summary termination of the police chief with an order for Simonson to surrender all city equipment…

25Feb 2018 by Lynda Waddington

No room for racism, sexism

Gazette Column

In any political climate, actions in Anamosa demand accountability. Imagine opening an email message from your boss and discovering a video clip of a woman in a Santa hat peeling off her clothing and presenting her breasts like a gift. Now imagine that your boss is the police chief, and that the email was sent to a group that included at least one City Council member and several of your fellow law enforcement officers. Finally, imagine the email isn’t an isolated incident, that it is one of several disturbing lewd and/or racist messages. That’s part of the situation that led former Anamosa police officer Amy Ford to file a gender discrimination lawsuit against the city, and also part of why the lawsuit was settled for $750,000 earlier this year. Anamosa City Hall,…

13Nov 2017 by Lynda Waddington

Time to stop the Chicago blame game

Featured, Gazette Column

There’s a persistent rumbling of how Chicago transplants are to blame for just about every negative trend in Eastern Iowa. Perhaps you’ve heard it? The lack of affordable housing in our communities, as well as the strain on local social services organizations, according to the rumbles, is because people from Chicago are moving here and jumping to the front of the line. Incidents of violence are skyrocketing, they say, because Chicago transplants are bringing gang activity, guns and illicit drugs with them. Even if violence and mayhem isn’t the intent, there’s a cultural divide between small city Iowa and big city Illinois that’s impossible to cross. And, perhaps worst of all, the rumbles single out people from Chicago’s south side as instigators of neighborhood corruption, which is too often a…

28May 2017 by Lynda Waddington

CR Transit changes nearly here

Gazette Column

Proposed changes to CR Transit passed their first public hearing hurdle this week. The upcoming changes are a result of recommendations from the 2016 Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) transit study, as well as current fiscal reality. In short, most transit riders will see improvements, but not a much wanted broader expansion of service. What’s included? Glad you asked. • Alternative Transfer Locations (aka Mini-Hubs) — Riders are going to see more crossover of routes, which will allow transfers to more easily take place outside of the ground transportation center in downtown Cedar Rapids. These will be located at Lindale and Westdale malls, and at the east and west side Wal-Mart stores. • Circulators — Looping routes will be implemented for Marion (Route 20) and the northeast side/Hiawatha (Route 30), making…

14Mar 2016 by Lynda Waddington

Marion should maintain housing discrimination high ground

Gazette Column

There are economic advantages to keeping municipal ordinances aligned throughout a metropolitan area, but such benefits should never outweigh protections against discrimination. Area landlords, speaking during a public comment period at the March 3 Marion City Council meeting, advocated for eliminating a piece of the rules governing the community’s relatively new Civil Rights Commission. It’s a battle the same landlords fought and won five years ago in Cedar Rapids, and it appears that past success is a key reason for wanting changes to the four-year-old Marion rules. Garry Grimm, a Cedar Rapids resident and landlord in both Cedar Rapids and Marion, told council members that there’s a difference in how he promotes properties and screens prospective tenants in the two communities. “For Cedar Rapids properties, if they call and ask…

19Dec 2015 by Lynda Waddington

An opportunity this weekend to stand with your neighbors

Gazette Blog

Area residents should meet at noon on May's Island Four teenage boys — Moussa, Abbas, Yousef and Ali Habhab — arrived in Cedar Rapids in the 1880s. They were the first of many Muslims to settle in the community, many following Christians known from their homeland into Iowa. Like so many immigrants, they found pride and promise in their new home and wanted to fold their own traditions into the existing culture. On a cold February in 1934, the community opened its first official house of worship — a small mosque, which would also serve as a community center. It is now the oldest standing building originally built as a mosque in our nation. The community grew. They fell in love, married and worked hard. They bore children, choosing to…

14Dec 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Trump, UKIP and other body blows to compromise

Gazette Column

Maybe instead of merely reacting to GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump “crazy talk,” it’s time to start understanding its appeal. Almost a year ago, I wrote about the correlations I’ve seen between the views of people who no longer fit neatly into either of the two dominant political parties and members of the United Kingdom Independence Party, commonly known as UKIP. An excerpt from the previous column: “Those who identify as UKIP feel they’ve been left behind economically and are adrift politically. They are incredibly anxious about the direction of their nation. Sound familiar? “While this British ideology that began in 1993 — the first to win a nationwide election in nearly 100 years — has been painted as a predominantly conservative movement, the survey shows its members hold liberal…

16Nov 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Missouri professor no longer deserves position

Gazette Column

Communication department professor should uphold First Amendment University of Missouri Assistant Professor of Communication Melissa Click must be fired. If you’ve watched the video, then you are hereby excused from reading this rest of the column. If not, let me set the stage for you. The video, shot by MU junior Mark Schierbecker, begins by focusing on MU senior Tim Tai, who is holding a camera and being surrounded by a crowd of people who want him, and all other journalists, to leave Carnahan Quad where a temporary encampment was set up by student activists. Students, who had been actively and peacefully protesting the university’s lack of response to ongoing incidents of discrimination and racism, were celebrating the resignation of university system president Tim Wolfe and the decision by MU…

15Mar 2015 by Lynda Waddington

All about that race (no trouble)

Gazette Column

Decades ago, when our family came to Iowa, I found the Hawkeye State uncomfortable. Not only did our oldest daughter and I have twangy southern accents that had people asking us to repeat slowly drawled words and phrases — “High-Ah-Wah-Tha, Eye-Oh-Wah” was, in retrospect, one of the more accent-challenged place names for our first home — but it was strange to suddenly be surrounded mostly by people who outwardly looked a great deal like me. Growing up, I don’t remember any calls for diversity. But that’s probably because my hometown was an imperfect mix of cultures and skin tones. The situation was, of course, not to everyone’s liking. There were residents there, just as there are here, who chose to judge others on appearance. Fortunately, my family, led by my…