AllThingsAppleton

During the "Other Business" portion of the Common Council meeting, Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) took a moment to briefly mention the 8 Americans and 130 other people currently being held in captivity by Hamas. Mayor Jake Woodford: Alder Schultz. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9): Thank you, Mayor. I just want to take a moment to sort of reflect on the fact that we still have eight hostages—American hostages held in captivity by Hamas and another 130 other hostages still being held. And as we celebrate the holidays in our safe, very safe community here with friends and family, I'd ask you to think about them and perhaps set a chair aside and a plate aside, just to sort of keep them in our hearts and minds. Thank you.

During the 04/19/2023 Common Council organizational meeting, the Council voted to change how invocations will be given. Going forward, instead of having individual alderpersons choosing their own statements to make, the invocation will consist of the following set phrase: "We gather together to listen and share, learn and educate, and to be granted wisdom and grace as we move Appleton forward, in the best interest of our community." A moment of silence or reflection may also be used for the Invocation. Additional messages may be added to the rotation of the Invocation with Common Council approval. Although the new rule took effect immediately, the Council opted to allow Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) to give the invocation that she had prepared prior to the rules change. Mayor Jake Woodford: Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday April 19 2023 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. And given that the invocation rule was just changed in the in the organizational meeting, but also given that alder Fenton had prepared an invocation, I'd asked if there's no objections for one last invocation as prepared before we get underway with the new rule. Are there any objections? Hearing none, please rise for Alder Fenton's invocation. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6): Thank you, colleagues, and good evening. As the mayor noted in last night's swearing in ceremony, the new year begins for the Common Council today. While I've often said that Wisconsin tests the mettle of its local elected officials by having them campaign in the middle of Midwest winter, it's fitting that our Council members take their seats in spring, the season of reawakening. It's coming I know it is. Spring is also when we celebrate Earth Day, which is this Saturday. Earth Day has a deep Wisconsin connection as the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson, who envisioned it as a day to bring awareness to environmental causes. On this 53rd Earth Day, we can celebrate a great deal of progress since the first one which occurred while American cities were choked with smog and the year after the Cuyahoga River actually caught fire when sparks from a passing train ignited oil floating on the river's surface. People spoke up and their elected officials listened creating laws and policies that resulted in clearer skies and cleaner water. We can be proud of what we have accomplished in the city of Appleton. While watching the screening of Hometown Wisconsin Appleton last week, I was struck by the thought that the first electricity in our city was green energy created by hydroelectric power. We've continued that legacy of environmental stewardship in Appleton, becoming a charter Green Tier Legacy community in 2010, harnessing biogas to minimize fossil fuel use at the wastewater treatment plant, and making the commitment to solar power across our city. As we embark on a new year for the Common Council and observe Earth Day, let's be mindful of the words of the mayor's Earth Day proclamation that there is a constant need for environmental stewardship, ag—advocacy, and sustainability efforts. We all com—recommitted earlier this evening to serve the best interest of our community, and that includes helping make sure that our stewardship of the environment contributes to, in the words of our mission statement, a high quality of life and a safe place to live work and play.

Mayor Jake Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Del Toro. Alderperson Israel Del Toro (District 4): First off, I want to congratulate my colleagues who were reelected to represent your districts last night, welcome our new colleague who has big shoes to fill, as well as say goodbye to an excellent friend and colleague, Alder Thao. It's been one year since I began representing District Four in the Appleton Common Council. And I find that in preparing this invocation, I wanted to use the opportunity to reflect on two aspects of what I'm doing here today: one, which is service to my community, and second, which is impart—to impart meaningful change. I also want to tie these two aims with one central theme: diversity. I want to start this invocation with the words of Audre Lorde who said "It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize them, accept, and celebrate that diversity." As I look in this room, I don't see a truly diverse representation of Appleton...yet. I don't see a celebration of our diversity. Instead, I see the seeds of divisiveness. As a Council, let's move away from this trend and towards the celebration of our community's diversity. While we are a diverse group in some ways, I encourage us to contemplate how to make this Council even more representative of the community we serve. This might require us some—require some of us to step back and be mentors in our community that stimulate and promote diversity rather than suppress it. On service, I ran because I wanted to serve. Professionally, I can best serve as a trained ecologist and practicing environmental scientist with 15 years experience, dozens of peer reviewed articles, and advanced educational merits. Most of us ran with the idea that we could serve our community in areas where we have some expertise to contribute. So with this in mind, I ask us to consider fulfilling all roles in this Council to the best of our ability and out of a genuine desire to better our community and not just self promote. If you're in communications, communicate, and please spread truth and non misinformation and divisiveness. If you're an artist, create art. If you're a lawyer, mediate. If you're financially savvy, guide us to invest wisely. And if you're a scientist, then share the best available and unbiased truths. April is Earth Month. And I want us to take this moment to carefully consider the forward thinking changes that we can make as a city and to contemplate how to better be—to be better stewards of our environment and natural resources. Let's build positivity and move away from ideas that inappropriately seek to dismantle or create divisiveness. Let's create a better city where we can proudly say to our constituents, "We work for you. We work for our environment, and towards a better future." Let's protect our biological diversity and implement lasting cultural change that shows—showcases the creative creative thinking and strengths of our city. Let us do our best to learn from the lessons of the past stated in this tes—Cesar Chavez quote: "Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best of our society, our culture, and our environment." Let's do better for our community, for our homes, and for our—other—our Mother Earth. Thank you.

Mayor Jake Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Schultz. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9): Never easy to follow George. That I know. One second here. I just lost it. Well, I may have to wing it. So, I struggled a little bit with coming up with his invocation. It's been over a year since I've done one, and this one in particular involves a day on the calendar that nobody really celebrates, per se, and only three percent of us actually recognize it. And I also know that when I get up, I can grandstand a little bit, and I didn't want to get on my soapbox too—soapbox too much. So that's what I was trying to figure out how to broach this subject. And then something happened to me last week that gave me the segue way. I had an interaction with a fellow human being and it set the tone for this invocation. So, I'd just finished shoveling my mother in law's driveway, her double driveway and sidewalk, and that's after I had done my own and my Bnb's and was feeling rather exhausted. And I left her house, got to the intersection—she lives on Ravinia Place—and got the intersection of Memorial and Ravinia, and I was looking northbound [to] make my—on exit, er turn into Memorial northbound, and I saw an elderly gentleman walking down the street hobbling around quite trepidatiously and quite slowly. Looked like he was hurting or was just having some significant issues trying to get down the street. And he wasn't on the sidewalk. He was actually on Memorial Drive with a lot of snow that had just recently fallen along the banks of that two-lane highway and was putting himself in significant risk of those two lanes. And I was wondering why he was there and noticed that he was occasionally thumbing for ride. He would turn in thumb, and then kind of hobble a little bit. I mean hobble, picture Biden with a cane and a medical boot on his foot, and you could kind of get the idea. He's coming down the road, in what was a very precarious situation. And I just immediately tense and stressed and anxious for this individual's safety. And I thought, “My goodness, I hope someone pulls over pretty quickly, or at least, puts their flashers on and gives this guy a ride or gets him at least off the highway.” And I really couldn't do anything else in my situation but sit there and watch this unfold. And he was about two thirds of the way up the block. And I'm thinking, "Come on people," and cars are passing, and many of them just zooming by probably not recognizing that he's there, and some of them recognizing and just shifting slightly to get around him. And but no one out of probably two dozen vehicles, made any effort to either slow down, turn around, or offer this individual any help. And so, I just kind of sat there until he made his way to me on I asked this individual if you wanted a ride. And he said, "Thank goodness. Thank you for stopping and helping me out here. No one wanted to stop. I just got out of the hospital. I was there overnight. I was on an IV. I'm—they didn't give me anything to drink, anything eat. I'm really thirsty. It was going to be an hour and a half before I could get my cab ride, and I just wanted to get home. And I just had a really rough morning. They said I might lose my leg. And I'm just—I can't believe how thankful I am that you stopped and gave me a ride." And I'm thinking, you know, "Why me?" So, reminder, this is 11 o'clock in the morning, and he'd already probably hobbled three or four blocks from St E's to get to Memorial Drive. And so I drove him to Menasha, and got to know him a little bit. And when he stepped out of the vehicle, he said, "God bless you. God bless you, son. Cannot believe how thankful I am that you did this." And in any normal conversation if someone says that to me, I usually have something snarky to say like, "I don't believe in Him, so thanks anyway," or something equally dismissive. But—and that's kind of what I was thinking in my head, but what came out of my mouth was, "Well, certainly, that was the Christian thing to do." And then I thought, "Why would I say?" That that's not really like me to invoke a religious belief when I'm not. And it occurred to me that when I was thinking about this, I was filling a void in my head perhaps or the void that was presented by all those vehicles that passed by, because if you think about it, roughly 75% of the population in the Midwest identifies as Christian or either Presbyterian or Catholic, and maybe another 20% as some other religious identity or agnostic. And there's just a small amount of us that identify as atheist. So, of those, let's just call it 24 vehicles, 18 of them are likely pass—practicing Christians, another five practicing some other religious or agnostic. And then just one person, who happened to be me, who practices no religion whatsoever ended up giving this ride to this human being who felt compelled to thank me in his way. And it was just an odd situation like, why is it that the atheist in this story is the one to give this individual assistance when most of the religious tenants, or the ones that I understand, would put this situation firmly in their—on their shoulders to remediate? And, and I guess all I can think about is maybe it's the worldview that I have that, you know, we share this earth. It's a singular space. I don't believe there's another one to go to after we're gone. And so all the interactions I have with either the human beings that I interact with, or the other life on this planet is singular, and it's in this very truncated, instantaneous lifetime of mine. And so, I think, "Why not help this individual? What is there to fear?" I mean, I get that circumstances are tricky on a highway like that. Not everyone could pull over or not—or maybe they had family and would not entertain the notion. But certainly, out of all those vehicles, there must have been some people who could have made that effort. And so, I just encourage you as you think about Atheist Day, to not think about atheism but think about your own religion if you practice it and consider doing things instead of just living behind the words of their religion, live behind the actions of religion. And if you find yourself in a situation where there's someone in need, take a moment, pause and consider his situation or that individual's situation, and if you have time and a little bit of empathy to reach out and help someone. Thank you

Mayor Jake Woodford: Good evening I now call to order the Wednesday March 1, 2023 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Meltzer. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2): Thank you. I would like to share a poem with you tonight by Mary Oliver. Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. This poem is titled "Spring." “Somewhere a black bear has just risen from sleep and is staring “down the mountain. All night in the brisk and shallow restlessness of early spring “I think of her, her four black fists flicking the gravel, her tongue “like a red fire touching the grass, the cold water. There is only one question: “how to love this world. I think of her rising like a black and leafy ledge “to sharpen her claws against the silence of the trees. Whatever else “my life is with its poems and its music and its glass cities, “it is also this dazzling darkness coming down the mountain, breathing and tasting; “all day I think of her— her white teeth, her wordlessness, her perfect love. “ Thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be offered by Alder Fenton. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6): Thank you, and happy National Wisconsin Day to those who celebrate. Last Sunday.... Mayor Woodford: Move your mic a little closer. Alderperson Fenton: Better? Last Sunday, I watched the Super Bowl along with 113 million others across the country. I've mostly lost interest in the NFL lately because of the treatment of players as commodities in spite of the revelations about CTE, the racial disparities in the number of players of color versus coaches of color, and the treatment of players who speak out against injustice, and the ever-present commercialized patriotism, not to mention whatever it is that a certain quarterback is up to. However, the Superbowl feels more like a national party than a football game. Even my eldest who normally avoids all discussions of sports ball weighed in during the family group text. Although she did let us know that the Puppy Bowl was far more interesting to her. The game was unusually good for a Super Bowl, and I enjoyed Rihanna's halftime performance. However, when I hopped over to Twitter later to look at a few of the is she or isn't she comments, it seemed that the 113 million viewers became twice that many online experts in music, dance, field turf, and the NFL holding rule. The furor was represented reminiscent of local events. When the postcard sent linked on Facebook the story about the proposed reconfiguration of College Avenue last month, there were over 1100 comments, quite a few of which were personally disparaging of city staff and elected officials. Sadly, that's the new normal. We seem to be emboldened to say things from the safety of the keyboard that we would never say to a human being. Or at least that used to be true. What really bothered me though, was the comparatively small number of people who actually reached out about the proposal. My counts are completely unscientific. I did not poll my colleagues, the mayor, or city staff about phone calls or emails they may have gotten directly. I counted the emails sent to all alderperson or to me directly and the phone calls I got. It was 1% of the number of comments on that one Post Crescent story. The 1100 number by the way, is more than the total number of voters in any single aldermanic district in the 2022 spring election. When Appleton downtown Inc and city staff held a listening session for downtown businesses on Monday, only six businesses were represented even though quite a few of the Facebook commenters profess to speak for downtown businesses. Local government is the easiest place to make your voice heard. Each alder represents about 5000 people in the city. We live in your neighborhoods. Our phone numbers are listed on the city webpage. And there's a link for emailing any or all of us about the issues you care about. Committee meetings and Council meetings are open to the public. You can speak to any action item on the agenda. Kudos to those of you who are here tonight. In that vein, I'd also like to recognize Alder Hartzheim and her neighbors in District 13 for working with city staff to come up with a modified plan for Vosters park that will work better for the neighborhood. I suspect that online comments would not have achieved the same result. You're not likely to get a response from Rihanna or the NFL Referees Association. But I'm sure pretty sure you'll hear back from your alder if you pick up the phone or write an email and leave the internet for its highest purpose: cat videos.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Hartzheim. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13): In 1957, Ebony Magazine invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to write a monthly column entitled "Advice for Living". Responding to readers’ questions about marital infidelity, sexuality, birth control, capital punishment, atomic weapons testing, and race relations, Dr. King's column reflected his moral and religious convictions and his thoughts on a wide range of issues. In the 19--in the November 1957 issue, one reader asked the particularly pointed question "is love really the solution to all problems?" The reader went so far as to make a jaded statement: "Perhaps love in the highest sense of the word is impractical in the world of today." Dr. King's response then is perhaps even more compelling than it was back in 1957. So I'll share it tonight for your invocation contemplation. I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have the sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love. Moreover, love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites. Hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the fight fire with fire method is bitterness and chaos. The aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and the creation of the beloved community.

Mayor Jake Woodford: Good evening I now call to order the Wednesday December 21 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Thao. Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7): Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab. Happy New Year. In our Hmong culture the New Year festivals are celebrate between the months of October to December. It is the combinations of years of hard work. During this time, my husband perform religious rituals that are essential to our family's life. First, he will perform the soul calling, which he calls the soul of members of the family to come back home for the new year and give everyone an egg to represent each spirit. Second, he renews our sukkah, which is the golden spirit who protect our family. And last but not least, he offered food to the deceased relatives and ancestors. In this season where we pause to remember and pay gratitude to our loved ones, I would like to dedicate this new year to my late mother Hu Thao Cane who passed away unexpectedly in June of this year. My earliest memories of my mother were in the refugee camp in the Thai refugee camp. I am the oldest of six children. And she taught me at a young age how to care for my younger siblings so she can earn a living doing tapestry Paj Ntaub to support our family. I recall carrying my baby brother in Hmong cloth carrier that she hand stitch, so my hands would be free to help the other siblings. I vividly recall the first time she asked me to go to the street market to pick up groceries for her to cook for dinner. This was the first time that she let me go along and sent a verbal grocery list. I felt nervous. Until this point I always only accompany her, yet I feel so big and so independent. In my teen years, I attended Hmong New Year celebration just like many other girls did, dressed in traditional outfits and went to the ball tossing with young men as a form of courtship. My mother will pull out the tradition clothes each year that she prepared for me and dress me up. This is a tradition and a bond between a mother and her daughter. I have so many beautiful memories of my mom. The foundation of my life is built of love, lessons and support from her. In the last year. I have missed all of the little things she did that now seems to be so big. From her phone calls, visits meals, and yes, of course, mom's lectures. I miss it all. Mom, while I may not see you, I feel you and I know you continue to guide and protect me as you have always done. In this new year. I set an intention to strengthen my love for my children like you show my siblings and me. So in gratitude, thank you for being my mother and my friend. In you I found so many dreams that came true. All of your greatness resides in me. I hope your travel in the afterlife has led you to my loving father and our ancestor. You are always in my heart forever. Happy New Year to you. Kuv hlub koj, niam. I love you mom.

[I don't often comment on alderperson invocations, but I must say I never in a million years expected to hear an Appleton alderperson give an invocation that could have come straight from Matt Walsh. Some issues truly are completely non-partisan.] Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Jones. Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10): I start tonight's meeting with a very, very important and vital question I have for you to ask yourselves: what do you do with your shopping cart? Yeah, shopping cart. Yep. Do you always put it back? Do you leave it for some random associate to wrangle? Do you park it on an island so you're kind of bringing it back? This is a simple shopping cart. It's an—it's an unspoken social contract that states while we may not go out of our way to assist someone, the very least we should not behave in a way that actively impedes the lives of others. By not returning your cart, you're making a clear statement that your life is more important than other’s lives, your schedule is more important, you're above that social contract. While the shopping cart task may see simple, it is a much larger representation for how we approach our work, our personal lives, and more. As we are ramping up into the December season, it is easy to get caught up in the stress and the drama and exhaustion of the holidays, while we run ourselves ragged trying to be filled with the spirit of the season. As you go about the month, I urge you: return your cart. Literally metaphorically, symbolically. Take that extra step to show others grace and kindness. Recognize that we are all in this together. There are lots of schedules, lots of people are busy, everyone matters. And we can do more when we put our needs in the backseat from time to time. And don't try and say that you shop at Aldi and always return your cart because you totally get your 25 cents back. So, thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Meltzer. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2): I'm going to start tonight with a land acknowledgement. Appleton occupies ancestral lands of the Menominee tribe. For 10,000 years the Menominee ancestral lands spanned Wisconsin and included parts of Michigan and Illinois. Well, today the Menominee tribe's territory is little more than 350 square miles. In 1954, Congress passed the Menominee termination act, removing federal recognition of the tribe in order to undermine their cultural identity. A long and difficult grassroots movement finally saw the passage of the Menominee Restoration Act in 1973. We are responsible for stewardship of this land today. And it's also our responsibility to learn about the history, culture and resiliency of the Menominee people. We need to take it upon ourselves to learn about the Menominee tribe's needs and challenges today, and how we can support them. Today marks the beginning of Native American Heritage Month. Today is also Dia de Muertos, a Mexican holiday that has been celebrated for thousands of years, which was blended with All Saints Day in the 16th century, when Spanish invaders introduced Christianity. Once a year, the dead are celebrated, and their presence is felt and their memories are cherished. It's interesting to note the parallel with Halloween, which was a Celtic celebration for thousands of years before it was officially co-opted in the eighth century, when Pope Gregory the Third designated November First as All Saints Day. Now is the time for remembering the dead and also for remembering our ancestors. Now is the time for telling their stories. What were the dreams and aspirations of those who were here before us? What were the dreams and aspirations of those whose legacy we inherited? And what were the dreams and aspirations of our own grandparents and great grandparents? To honor the past, we need to make sure that the future we build remains connected to its roots. And to honor the past, we need to heal each other in the present. To honor the dead. We need to build a future in which everyone can live well. Thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Wolff. Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) Thank you. All right. Today, I will be reading, in its entirety, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Awesome. However, due to time constraints and the likelihood that I would call the question on myself, I will instead be reading you two short and inspirational quotes. “There's a child in every one of us who is still a trick or treater looking for a brightly lit front porch,” by Robert Brault. “If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween,” by Douglas Coupland. That is all. Happy Halloween.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Hartzheim. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13): My dad was often famous, or maybe I mean infamous, for the phrase "I once thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken." He also really liked the song "It's Hard To Be Humble", but that's a whole different story. Anyway, Dad's catchphrase echoed in my brain earlier this week as I watched the 2011 TED Talk called "On Being Wrong." I stumbled on this brief talk by Katherine Schultz on the way down an internet rabbit hole brought on by reading "The Coddling of the American Mind." The talk, the book, and countless other resources point to what we all feel happening around us. We feel divided. Instead of trying to see other points of view, we seem to be bent on just trying to prove that we are right. Or at the very least, that we're not wrong. It's as much present in our neighborhoods as it is in this chamber. One of the great untruths presented by the authors of "The Coddling of the American Mind" is that the world is an us-against-them battle of good versus evil with no in betweens. So I watched "On Being Wrong" and I heard this: We learn at a young age that the way to succeed in life is to never make mistakes, never be wrong. But trusting too much in the feeling of being on the correct side of anything can be very dangerous. Our stubborn attachments to our own rightness keeps us from preventing mistakes when we absolutely need to, and causes us to treat each other terribly. There is this pervasive feeling that the way that I believe, the things that I want, the ways that I want to do them are good, and that any differing opinions--and indeed the people who hold them or express them--are against me or are wrong or are evil. The talk ends with Miss Schultz advocating that we each quote, "step outside the tiny, terrified space of having to be right, and look out and around at the complexity and mystery of the world and say, 'I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.'” I'm going to invoke God's help now and not because my religious beliefs are right and anyone who believes otherwise is wrong or my enemy. Lord, help us here in this chamber and in our own neighborhoods to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and to trust that we each have the same end goals of helping this city and everyone in it to grow and thrive. Help us—help us to practice intellectual humility, to question our most strongly held beliefs for the benefit of ourselves and for those we serve. Help us to see those who disagree with us not as our enemies, but rather as your way of giving us pause to reflect upon how we are often trapped in our own tiny, terrified spaces of rightness. Help us to understand that you created the complexity and mystery of this world and gave our brains the expansive ability to see beautiful nuance in all things. And most of all, help us to learn to employ a better version of my dad's phrase "I once thought I was right. But maybe I was mistaken.”

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Meltzer. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2): The Chinese mid-autumn festival was on September 10th. And I want to share one of my favorite mid-autumn poems with you. The first time I encountered this poem, I was a small child in China with no control over why I ended up there, far from my familiar community. The simple words of this poem resonated with me deeply. It was written by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai while he was in exhile from his homeland. It's called "Quiet Night Thoughts". Bright moonlight shines before my bed Like frost on the ground I raise my head and behold the bright moon I lower my head and miss my home The tradition of mid-autumn poetry is to write poems of admiration to the moon, but no matter how bright and beautiful the moonlight, no matter how much we have to celebrate, if we are alone without a sense of belonging the bright moonlight seems as cold as frost. Rosh Hashanah, the two day celebration of the Jewish new year, begins on September 25th. It is celebrated with apples and honey and sweetness. A week later is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, marked by fasting and deep introspection. As we prepare for the holiday season and enjoy the festivals of our many different traditions, let us remember those who are alone right now and those who have no harvest to enjoy because they have lost everything. Let us remember those who are struggling to build new lives and those who are apart from their families and loved ones. As the season begins to grow colder and the nights grow longer, we all need more warmth from each other.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Del Toro. Alderperson Del Toro (District 4): Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Embracing diversity. What makes Appleton a special place to live? Reflect on this thought for just a few moments. Is it our parks? Our safe streets? Our low cost of living? All of these things matter. But for me it's the people—my neighbors, my community. And what makes a community strong, resilient, and special is its diversity. Diversity in race, ethnicity, ages, physical abilities, religious identities, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Appleton is special because we are starting to understand that in this—that this diversity makes our community vibrant, strong, and resilient. Allow me to make a brief agroecological comparison. We know that monocultural agricultural ecosystems are vulnerable to pests, disease, and unable to handle change. They are ecologically simple and vulnerable places and ultimately require a lot of energy input to have efficient production. In contrast, a multi-species cultivar is less energy intensive, more resistant to pests and diseases, and resilient to change, and maximizes production more efficiently. Similarly, we can model our community to be diverse in cultures, values, and identities, and make what is already good better. A change is coming. National census estimates project the US Latino population will grow by 60% by 2050, making it the second largest ethnic demographic in the country. As such it is incumbent upon us to prepare our city to welcome this change. Let's embrace the Latinx men and women that contribute to our community. We are teachers. We are laborers. We are low- and middle- income families who seek a better community and opportunity for our future generations. We do the jobs that many others turn down, and often we do them for lower wages. It is time to recognize that a change is coming and we as a community can grow to be welcoming of this change, to embrace the possibilities, and provide equity to our Latinx community. Next week marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month. I ask you to reflect on our local Latino community during this time. Experience the diverse vibrant Latino celebrations, foods, traditions, and cultures. To my Latino brothers and sisters, we are part of this community. Our voice matters in this community, and our vote matters in this community. Stay engaged. Come out from behind the scenes. Show the city of Appleton that with our diversity comes strength, resiliency, and we will truly make the city of Appleton One Great Place. [He then repeated in Spanish: "To my Latino brothers and sisters, we are part of this community. Our voice matters in this community, and our vote matters in this community. Stay engaged. Come out from behind the scenes. Show the city of Appleton that with our diversity comes strength, resiliency, and we will truly make the city of Appleton One Great Place.”]

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Fenton. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6): Good evening. My original plan when I requested tonight's invocation was to commemorate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment on Friday and Women's Equality Day on the 26th of this month. But events of the past week have changed my mind. I sat down to write and everything demanded to be heard—museums and parks and mental health and gun violence and internet trolls and being afraid and being angry. Clearly impossible. So it seems like a good idea to leave it to Ellen Kort. Advice To Beginners from her 2010 collection "If I Had My Life To Do Over Again" Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything. Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie. The older you get the more they'll want your stories. Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electric fences. Swim with the sea turtles into the moon. Drink wild geranium tea. Everything that happens will happen and none of us will be safe from it. Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night. Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to the top of the highest tree until you come to the branch where the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast. Wear them on your forehead. Lick the mountain's bare shoulder. Measure the color of days around your mother's death. Put your hands over your face and listen to what they tell you.

Council President Van Zeeland: Tonight’s invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Alfheim. Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11): Balance. Man Off Screen: Thirteen Alderperson Alfheim: She got me. Balance. What makes finding balance so difficult? Perhaps it's that we have so many more things to consider than in the past: education, the economy, individual rights, small businesses, the climate, the arts, multi-cultures, religions, taxes versus service, suburbans versus downtown. The list of issues and priorities is endless and challenging. How are we to find balance in all this? The first necessity is empathy, the willingness to see and feel from the opposite side of an issue. Without a willingness to understand the opposing view and how it affects them, no progress can be made. Second is the willingness to learn from new information. Whether it be feelings or facts, new information should be accepted and either added to or replace your initial thoughts. Third, it's necessary to be unselfish, to realize the greater good often requires common decency and a small sacrifice. Balance is not about perfection. It is not about right or wrong. It's about acknowledging there are many people and factors involved, causing both positive and negative consequences. Finding balance takes work. I challenge this council and our community to always put in the work to find balance as we move forward together.

Mayor Woodford: Oh, you're already quiet. Do I even have to do the gavel? Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday July 20th, 2022 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Firkus. Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3): Good night—or good evening. Giving an invocation on this topic is a bit challenging to give in the face of some of the things that have occurred in this country in recent weeks, but something I've tried to spend a lot of time focusing on in the last year. And maybe when it's toughest to exercise these traits it's also the most important. The traits I'm referring to are humility and grace. The two go hand in hand in that we're often reluctant to exercise one when we feel we are in a place devoid of the other. To have humility is to have the fortitude to admit when we are wrong, to take the criticism we've earned and maybe some we haven't, to learn and to grow from it. Some see this as a weakness, that we must always double down and insist that we are right and only we are good. Grace is the ability to forgive without preconditions, to give those around you the room to be wrong and to be better. Grace is patience with the ones who have hurt you, even when they have done so willingly. In our always-on, hyper-connected world, humility and grace are hard to have. The stakes feel higher because they are. One poorly worded tweet can make you famous in the worst way and the target of endless harassment. Ideas expressed from a place of immaturity or inexperience can be dredged up several years later and cost you your reputation and more. This is not to say that people should be free from consequences of their words or actions. Taking accountability for our words and actions is an important part of true humility. And grace is having reasonable expectations for what taking accountability looks like. We live in a world that can often feel like we are constantly at each other’s throats. Some people have made it their job, and a thousand times as many have made it their hobby. We decry a lack of civility but too often will use it as justification to participate in the same toxic behaviors. Somewhere along the way, being authentic and living your truth got contorted into being ruthlessly rude, endlessly snide, and belittling, never being wrong and always being on the attack. Having humility and showing others grace in this world takes a lot of strength, more than these other so-called alpha traits, but it's the change in attitude we need. It's a small change that we can all do. It's something we can all control within ourselves. And if it catches on, maybe society will start working better, and we will try to build each other up instead of tearing each other down and holding each other back.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Meltzer. Alderperson Meltzer (District 2): Thank you. I'd like to first start with saying that I hope that everyone is taking care and staying safe out there tonight with the weather that we're having. So, since June is Pride Month and we just celebrated Flag Day, during which we honor the flag of the United States of America, it is fitting to talk about another flag, the pride flag. The rainbow flag wasn't always the emblem that represented the LGBTQ community. A pink triangle was used by the Nazis in Germany to identify homosexuals in internment camps during World War II. After that, the pink triangle because the symbol associated with the LGBTQ struggle against oppression. However, because this symbol represented such a dark part of history, in the 1970s the rainbow flag was adopted after Gilbert Baker and other artists and activists were inspired by Harvey Milk to create a positive symbol to represent the LGBTQ community. This rainbow flag was called the pride flag. Harvey Milk was an influential gay leader who was assassinated on November 27, 1978 while serving as a city supervisor in San Francisco. After his death, the rainbow flags were in high demand and became ubiquitous. In 2017, the city of Philadelphia produced a pride flag with black and brown stripes added at the top to draw attention to the disparities experienced by people of color within the LGBTQ community. In 2018, Danial Quasar designed a flag with a chevron containing additional stripes to represent marginalized people of color, trans people, and those living with HIV or AIDs and those who have been lost, explaining the arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being placed along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made. Just as this flag has evolved, so does our community evolve. This is the beautiful freedom of being American. The LGBTQ community's progress in our country is thanks to the success of American democracy. That which threatens the LGBTQ community and dehumanizes us is also a threat to democracy in general and to American freedom as a whole. Let's be proud this month. Let's be proud of stars and stripes and be proud of rainbows and celebrate the freedoms we have in this country to be authentic in our gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation without threat of punishment or risk of execution. Let's celebrate the right of individuals to marry whom they love. Let's celebrate the freedoms that we have and the amazing community that continues to adapt and evolve ever towards a better world where progress continues towards realizing the deepest ideals of democracy and liberty. Thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Wolff. Nate Wolff (District 12): I just wanna--okay we're good. Thank you. All right. So this month is Pride Month. June. And I couldn't be happier about the progress we've made over the past 6 years. In the past 6 years we have banned conversion therapy, we have gotten businesses to show their support for the LGBTQ community. We have more alders in this room who identify as LGBTQ than we've ever had before, and I couldn't be prouder of that fact. I would like to thank this administration for their work in protecting the rights of LGBTQ people and the previous administration that, you know, helped get a pride flag flying from City Hall. That couldn't have been done without the previous administration which is something just so beautiful. I know that on mental health, something that we have been talking about and will talk about again tonight, and have talked about again tonight, the letters and, you know, messages from people in the LGBTQ community that have appreciated what the city and what activists around the city have done has helped them immensely, has saved lives, and will continue to make kids know that they are welcomed in our community, and that is something that we need to continue to push for and, yeah. Thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Hartzheim. Alderperson Hartzheim (District 13): Thank you, Chair. Every year at around this time, I think about graduations. Mostly about how long it's been since I graduated from college. And let's not even talk about high school. But I also think about how the experience is for most graduates simultaneously exciting and daunting. Graduation preparations and ceremonies make me think of times of great life changes, times when one hopes to take the right next step, not knowing for certain what that step might be or where it might lead. In a way, a graduation ceremony is a kind of a momentous reminder that each of us has to choose the next right step in everyday decisions that we make in our lives. My father who passed away earlier this year at the ripe old age of 94 had a saying about parenting through life changes. Well, he had a lot of sayings because he was 94 and had 8 children. But regardless, he always said to his kids, “You're going to have to drive over or around potholes. No matter how much I want to, I can't pave the path for you.” In fact, I think that was his graduation advice to me, though at the times I was like “Thanks, Dad.” But since then, I've often come back to that phrase. I don't always have the right answer or know the right steps, but I'll negotiate the unsmooth path as best I can. We Council members, in order to take the next right steps for the City of Appleton have to choose kindness and thoughtfulness and, as Mayor Woodford has stated many times, hold fast to the belief that each of our fellow council members comes from a place of wanting what's best for this city and its citizens. While I often remember my dad's words, it's possible that Admiral William H. McCraven gave better advice in his famous 'Make Your Bed' commencement address in 2014. No disrespect, Dad. Admiral McCraven said, “Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair, and that you will fail often. Lift up the downtrodden and never give up. If you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.” I hope that all of us present remember that advice tonight and every time we meet on behalf of this city and its citizens.

Council President Van Zeeland: Our invocation this evening will be given by Alderperson Thao. Alderperson Thao: Thank you, Council President. Good evening, everyone. May marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to celebrate and share the history and contribution of our Asian community. I would like to take this time to share with you my life story. It is so important that each one of us remember our heritage as we celebrate our heritage in many ways. I was born in Laos. I was lucky to be born after the Vietnam War. When I was 3 years old my family escaped persecution by fleeing the country. We walk over hundreds of miles through the villages and jungles, crossing the Mekong River in a raft and inner tube to seek refuge in Thailand. The images we witnessed last summer regarding the fall of Afghanistan and the images happening now in Ukraine was exactly the image my parents endured in 1975 in Laos at the fall of Long Chieng to the communists. I don't remember what life was like in Laos, but I do remember what life was like as a little girl growing up in the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand. Playing outside in the dirt, using stick and pebbles to create games such as like Jack and drawing on the dirt to create hopscotch template. There was no electricity. We used lard as a wax for candle unless your family was able to afford fresh lights. We used the moon and the star as the source of light to see the evening to guide us home. The sky--the stars were so bright and beautiful. The stars were so bright and beautiful and hung really low in the sky as if we could almost touch it. I was the oldest of six children. I barely had a childhood and so many responsibility as the oldest. I helped my mother to take care of my sibling as she could work at the Hmong Paj Ntaub story cloth which she sells at the street market to tourists for some money to buy food for our family. My mother was really skillful of her tapestry and make traditional Hmong outfit which she sells at a street market. My father work with Father [John?] to help new development for newcomers around the Ban Vinai refugee camp. My family lived in the refugee camp for 8 years. Before we came to America, we had to go through many interview process. My family moved to different camp to learn about the American culture and to make sure that everyone in their family was healthy with no illnesses before coming to America. No one knew where America was, what America is like, but I heard America would be a safe place to live. In the fall of 1989, my family arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a big culture shock. We learned to live our new life in the new land. The first time we watch an action movie was the Terminator and it was--scared me for many months. We experience eating snow for the first time, pizza, spaghetti with meat sauce, cereal with milk, and learn how to follow other children sledding down the hill in the winter. There was so many nights that I wonder how I survive through this life journey. This journey will be a great story to tell my children and my future grandchildren for generations to come. Thank you for listening to my life experience. We are a strong, vibrant community. This month we can join and learn about our AAPI community by attending some community events that will be happening. Support AAPI community by supporting their small businesses, professionals, neighbors, coworkers. Let's celebrate Asian Americans Pacific Islander Heritage Month here in the city of Appleton. Thank you.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Meltzer. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2): Thank you. The invocation I'm going to deliver tonight is the very first invocation that I every delivered at Council in August of 2014. And I feel that with the seating of a new Council it's very timely to bring this particular invocation back. So, I hope you all enjoy. Who am I? Am I the person that I want to be? Everyone asks themselves these questions and for those of us in the public eye who can serve as inspiration and role-models to others, these questions are all the more important. I think we all strive to be the same person. Someone who is confident and courageous. Someone who trusts themselves. Someone who gives and receives in equal balance and can be simultaneously responsible and creative. Someone who is always learning new things and always teaching others. Someone who loves their family, friends, and community. Someone who creates positive change in the world, who dispels illusions, and sees through deception. Someone who accepts no limits, resists stagnation, and embraces growth. We stand alone as individuals, but together we create a whole that is greater than its parts. We can turn endings into beginnings. We can all save the world. But we cannot do it alone. In order to be the person we want to be, we need to reach out to each other. We need to communicate with the intent to be understood rather than merely heard. And do do that, we need to listen, not just to each other but to ourselves. Am I the person that I want to be? Do my words and actions make the world a better place for everyone? We must never stop asking these questions. Thank you.

I believe this was the article Alderperson Siebers referenced: https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-mother-thanks-slovakian-police-083539263.html Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Siebers. Alderperson William Siebers (District 1): Thank you, Your Honor. When Mary sent out the invitation to do the invocation for tonight's meeting, I quickly accepted the offer without any idea what I would share tonight. It is then it dawned on me that this is Women's History Month, the month in which we celebrate women's contribution to history, culture, and society. But then the questions became, who should I highlight and what should I highlight? And then with my questions in mind, I met two women. One through a news story and one through my daily devotional reading. Two women most do not know and who are not ones we would recognize during Women's History Month. But yet two very special women. The news story is that of a mother who has an 11-year-old son. She is a widow and she's taking care of her elderly mother who is limited in her mobility. For a brief moment place yourself in this woman's shoes. Now place yourself living in a country that has been invaded by a foreign power, and your city which is close to a nuclear plant is being bombed daily. You worry about the safety of your family--people are fleeing your city--but your decision to flee is difficult because your mother is not in a condition where you can get up and join were you to decide to flee. And yet you greatly worry about the safety of your son. What do you do? If you stay it is likely you will not survive. But you can't just leave your mother. So, you decide to put your son on a train all by himself. Before he gets on a train, holding back your tears as best as you can, you give him a hug, you tell him you love him, you tell him to be strong, and that one day you will be together again. You say this knowing that there is a good chance you never will be. Now put yourself in the shoes of that 11-year-old boy. You're on a train packed with strangers. You find yourself sitting next to the window with your face squeezed up against it, and then you see your mother. You see that she is crying, and with innocence you struggle to understand why someone wants to kill your family and the people of your city and your country. After more than a 600-mile journey you reach your country's border with Slovakia. All you have are the clothes on your back, a plastic bag with a passport, and a phone number written on your hand. For my invocation tonight I want to share with you the words of a Christian poet laureate Ann Weems who once wrote: "I no longer pray for peace. I pray for miracles. “I pray that stone hearts will turn to tenderheartedness, and evil intentions will turn to mercifulness, and all the soldiers already deployed will be snatched out of harm’s way, and the whole world will be astounded onto its knees. “I pray that all the “God talk” will take bones, and stand up and shed its cloak of faithlessness, and walk again in its powerful truth. “I pray that the whole world might sit down together and share its bread and its wine. “Some say there is no hope, but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools who never seem to give up on the scandalousness of our faith: that we are loved by God... that we can truly love one another. “I no longer pray for peace. I pray for miracles." To those who hear my words tonight, while we are praying for peace, let us also pray for miracles. Amen.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Martin. Alderperson Joe Martin (District 4): Thank you, Mayor. And I'm sure with this being my last invocation I'll get a little leeway. I'd like to thank Mayor Woodford. We started this in a pandemic and you have kept the keel on an even spot. So thank you for keeping it even. Thank you to all my constituents that I have served. Thank you to Tim Hanna. We started our pouring brandy old fashioned [something] with mushrooms at Trim B's. And you went on to become the mayor of the City of Appleton. Thank you to my colleagues in the chamber. It has been a pleasure to serve with you. Thank you to all my colleagues that I have served within the past 14 years. Thank you to all the directors in the chambers and those who have retired or are going to retire. Thank you to all the Deputy Directors. You are a talented group of individuals. We need to respect them and pay them. Thank you to all the supporting staff. One of the things about this city when you go around, every one of our staff will--are talented, they're dedicated, and they are great employees. Thank you to the City of Appleton. In 1987 I moved here from San Antonio, Texas. I fell in love with this city and the four miles of a true riverwalk. Thank you. It has been a great role.

Mayor Woodford: Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Wolff. Alderperson Wolff (District 12): Thank you. First, I would like to say a moment—or have a moment of silence for those who have lost their life at war and are in current battle as we speak. Thank you. Over the past week, Russia has invaded Ukraine in what has to be one of the most disrespectful ways to do it imaginably. They have killed civilians, children without disre—with no disregard for civilian life. Putin has a long history of imprisoning people who protest or speak out against him. He has continued to shut down any form of democ—or tried to shut down any form of democracy because his country has been so bad for his people. Meanwhile, across the border from Russia, you have a Ukrainian president, Zelensky, who has liberated his people, brought them freedom, given them rights, a voice, and made them love living free. In America we always speak up for freedom. We always defend it, and we should be inspired by the people of Ukraine. What they have done and how they continue to fight every inch for their homeland is inspiring and is remarkable. Something you can do to support Ukraine is to wear their colors, fly their flag on local businesses, and show that you're supporting Ukraine. I want to end with something that happened in Ukraine. This grandmother approached some soldiers and she asked them what they were doing here. She asked them why they were here. She told them to leave, and she said to one of the soldiers—she told him to take some sunflower seeds and put them in his pocket so that when he died sunflowers would grow on Ukraine soil. That was the nice version of what was said. So, I also encourage people this spring to grow sunflowers, 'cause they're amazing and beautiful. Thank you.