Keyboard totally being random . . . so I got this the best I could.
Part One is here.
GOOD-BYE THUY PHAM-REMMELE
[NOTE: I honestly don’t know if she was being angry or conciliatory or what here. I don’t think I understood her intent. Captured it the best I could.]
Pham-Remmele says there is only one person who can understand how happy I am that this moment finally arrived, that is her husband Dave. She is happy can leave without looking back, she is not a lifelong politician, she did not run for personal gain, was asked to run. She was glad to see Cindy Thomas here. When she was first elected she didn’t know what happened in the chamber, when she heard “chamber” it gave a bad connotation. In the last four years, her mother passed away while debating the Edgewater, her husband had to eat cereal and a banana on many days, but she believes in the process, she believes in democracy and she loves Madison. Everything in live happens for a reason, everyone you encounter leaves you with something. She learned something through you, something she doesn’t want to remember but it builds character. When she got the Fulbright scholarship to come to Madison she had to look it up on the map, she left a tropical paradise to come to this region, it was like Hawaii there. She said she would be here 2 years and ended up being here 40 years, so she wants to thanks this country, cuz like a tsunami she was without a home or country or language, she never asked for anything, because there was no one there to ask it of. She picked herself up one piece at a time, she did what was asked of her. When she first got here, her principal looked like her father, when she left the principal looked like her son. When she lost her daughter in 1989, that touched her . . . missed some . . . that made her realize she would help if there was something she could do. She would not say no, she nnever knew she had to knock on doors and sit overnight in the chamber, she did not know some people like to hear the sound of their voice so much and make a mockery to people who come here. When she was first on the council Cnare called her to see if she would vote for her, and she said she could then eat lunch with the mayor. Cnare said he changed. It is a privilege to know how city is run, as an outsider, allowed to come inside, what she saw depressed (or impressed?) her, but she is indebted to the staff because they are the most professional and patient – she came in trying to learn, just like the way she handled her class, if you don’t know you ask, she honestly wants to learn and apply, if she did anything to offend any of you, there was no malice, but she is thankful. Things come and go, its the staff that make the city operate, many of you I don’t know your name, but if I knock on your door, I ask and get an answer. Mr Soglin, I came here in 1973 and now leaving in 2011 our lives never crossed, you were protesting the war in my country, I had nothing to do with the protest but my heart is related to this community who embraced me, who allowed me to become one of you. I wish you well, when I came in, I said it’s not that I don’t know how to play games, I choose not to play games. What you see is what you get . . . missed some . . . things come and go, Madison is not just a lake, not just downtown, not just a university, its all of that. She is thankful that people came to vote, cast a choice, every vote count and Mr. Cieslewicz, if you have trouble struggling to see why your reign was disrupted prematurely, I wish you well. Even one vote counts, she appreciates people who choose one who best represents you. She says she’ll keep is short. She tries to be the person that poverty cannot change, wealth cannot corrupt, that won’t succumb to power whatever that is. She asks her husband to come up. She says she doesn’t need credit, this does not validate her, she doesn’t want the plaque with the resolution, she has her life and husband and they are together and she is glad to go home with him. missed some. She says she is a very petite woman from a 3rd world country, but please don’t sit on me. District 20 is on the map, and what people say don’t forget, it is the people who make the place, she humbly thanks them and wishes them the best of luck.
GOODBYE MAYOR DAVE CIESLEWICZ
Cieslewicz says he has a lot of friends in the room, but not everyone is his friend. He reads a Walt Whitman quote. I missed it as he read it, but I think it was “Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?” . . . I missed some as I was messing with my computers and trying to get something to work . . . He says he wants to thank people, but he won’t Verveer them, cuz then they would feel Bruer’d. He thanks his staff and chokes up as he thanks his wife Diane. There are standing ovations. Diane blows him a kiss from the back of the room. Even I teared up. 🙂 He says he loves Madison and loved being mayor. Tells the Amazing Grace story again. He says that he’d like to also end with a Walt Whitman quote, since this is a city of many songs. “The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.”
Many alders speak, which I will fill in later . . . but the Alders and Mayor Soglin got sworn in around 1:45. The clerk made a mistake when reading the oath and Soglin corrected it for her, which was a funny moment. Then Lauren Cnare was elected council president and Shiva Bidar-Sielaff was elected Pro Tem. With that, they recessed the meeting and went to lunch.
