The Appleton Common Council met on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers, adjourning at 7:15 PM. Mayor Jake Woodford presided, with 14 alderpersons present (Alderperson Jones virtually) and 2 excused (Van Zeeland and Heffernan). The meeting opened with an invocation by Alderperson Fenton honoring the life of Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died the previous day, and included the Pledge of Allegiance.
Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Please rise for the invocation, which will be delivered by Alder Fenton. Thank you. Good evening. This February marks the hundredth anniversary of what became Black History Month. How do we approach it in this very white place in a way that is meaningful rather than performative? We can take up space that isn't for us, but we also can't use that as an excuse to do nothing. I'd intended to read a poem by Langston Hughes tonight, but the death of the Reverend Jesse Jackson yesterday changed my plans. The New York Times obituary called him the nation's most influential black figure in the years between the civil rights crusades of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the election of Barack Obama. Mr. Jackson picked up the mantle of Dr. King after his assassination in 1968 and ran for president twice, long before Mr. Obama's election in 2008. He became a moral and political force in a racially ambiguous era when Jim Crow was still a vivid memory and black political power more an aspiration than a reality. In memory of Reverend Jackson, excerpts from his 1984 speech to the Democratic National Convention after his presidential campaign gave rise to the Raybo coalition. Leadership must heed the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity, for they are the key to achieving our mission. Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things. No generation can choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but through leadership, it can choose to make the age in which it was born an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs and peace and justice. Only leadership, that intangible combination of gifts, the discipline, information, circumstance, courage, timing, will, and divine inspiration can lead us out of the crisis in which we find ourselves. Leadership can mitigate the misery of our nation. Leadership can part the waters and lead our nation in the direction of the promised land. Leadership can lift the boats stuck at the bottom. Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbow, red, yellow, brown, black, and white, and we're all precious in God's sight. America is like a blanket, not like a blanket. One piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt, many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the Black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the business person, the environmentalists, the peace activists, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt. Even in our fractured state, all of us count and fit somewhere. We have proven that we can survive without each other, but we have not proven that we can win and make progress without each other. We must come together. He finishes the speech. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint. Our time has come. Our faith, hope, and dreams will prevail. Our time has come. Weeping has endured for nights, but now joy cometh in the morning. Our time has come. No grave can hold our body down. Our time has come. No lie can live forever. Our time has come. We must leave racial battleground and come to economic common ground and moral higher ground. America, our time has come. We come from disgrace to amazing grace.