Alderperson Denise Fenton's (District 6) Invocation At 02/15/2022 Common Council Meeting

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.