“One Community” is a nice slogan.

Everyone agrees that it will take more than words to get it done, but words can at least help.

That’s why it is so disheartening to see the comments that came from the Ames City Council last week, and especially from Mayor Ted Tedesco.

At a news conference, Tedesco announced that he was going to seek answers to two questions: Whether the city could unilaterally deny a petition seeking two-year City Council terms, and whether the 731 petitioners could be forced to pay for a portion of the election costs.

With the vast majority of the signatures coming from students, this amounted to Tedesco wanting to dismiss or charge students for having the audacity to get involved in local government. Tedesco did indeed ask these questions, and was rightly shot down by the city attorney.

Other Council members, save Matthew Goodman, were almost as offensive. Riad Mahayni, who represents a ward dominated by students, said this petition was an attack on the “One Community” concept; that it “reinforces this gap we are trying to fill.”

It seems to us that presenting a unified attack on student activism will do more to reinforce the gap than anything else. Allowing students, who represent a huge portion of the voting-age population, a realistic ability to run for City Council should help improve relations in the city.

Anyone who finds it threatening is clearly not dedicated to strengthening the community in the first place.

Steve Goodhue, who represents all of Frederiksen Court as well as much of northern Ames, called it a “tremendous mistake.” Goodhue is rumored to be pursuing the position of mayor for next year, making this a potentially distressing sign for the future of student-city relations.

Once again Matthew Goodman stands alone as the most reasonable person on the City Council. While he seems to oppose the measure on balance, his words have been measured and he disagrees about the apocalyptic nature of the petition. He recognizes that the petition is not an act of combat by students, but a genuine effort to make their voices heard. If the city was doing a better job of that it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.

If the City Council and the mayor have any intention of bridging the gap between students and long-term residents, learning to speak without insulting students would be a good first step. Actually, a good first step would be taking student concerns seriously, but you have to crawl before you can walk.