I thought it would be interesting to start pulling out and highlighting the invocations that the alderpersons give at the Common Council meetings. These are nonpartisan positions and a majority of city government business is mundane. As a result the public doesn’t have the crutch of seeing a D or an R next to a person’s name and being able to categorize them. This can be wonderfully freeing because we can’t so easily categorize and dismiss people and are left to judge each person on their own individual merits. But how do we get to know our alderpersons? It occurred to me that each Common Council invocations provides a little bit insight into an individual alderperson–their worldview, interests, and state of mind.
To that end I am beginning what will most likely end up being a twice monthly feature, of transcribing and posting the invocations that the alderpersons give.
Denise Fenton, representing District 6, gave the invocation on 01/20/2021.
“Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain seeking a home where he himself is free.” This might sound like an American dream deeply rooted in nostalgia for a country where that dream is unattainable for many. It was actually written in 1936 by the Black writer Langston Hughes, and it goes on to describe his disillusionment with the American dream and the United States’ failure to fulfill its promise for freedom and equality for all people. The next line reads, “America was never America to me.” In a week where we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr, and mark the inauguration of the first woman, Black woman, South Asian woman elected to national office, we know that many are no closer to the American dream that when Hughes wrote these words, or when Dr. King noted in his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963 that 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation Black people were “still crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” Many of us just listened to President Biden remind us that “our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, and fear have torn us apart.” The battle is perennial and the victory is never secure. We marveled at the words of the 22 year old poet Amanda Gorman as she read her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” which ends “We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover, and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Langston Hughes ended his poem with a plea for action as well. “We the people must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, the mountains, and the endless plain all, all the stretch of these great green states and make America again.”
But we sit here as local officials who do not have the policy power or the bully pulpit of a Presidents or the lyric power of a poet. What is our role in the battle? I think Mayor Woodford expressed it very well in his words to us the last time we met hours after the horrifying events at our nation’s Capitol. Invoking the need for care, respect, and diligence at every level of government. I would add the word “equity”. We need to look at every decision we make through a lens of equity. Who will be made better or worse off by what we do? We are adding equity to diversity and inclusion in the coordinator’s job description. Let’s add it to all the work we do.”
Denise Fenton – District 6 Alderperson (01/20/2021 Common Council meeting invocation)
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