Board of Aldermen Page 5
September 27, 2016
to learn that there was some belief that the Welcoming America Initiative was bringing in a political
agenda. | know that not to be the case. | encourage you all tonight to do the right thing and bring
forward the resolution in either the Mayor’s newly amended form or the original form that he presented a
couple of weeks ago to put Nashua on the map as not only the state’s most diverse city but to really
support the efforts that many people in this community have been making for a very long time and to say
we welcome, we support and we applaud the risks that are taken for people that weren’t born here to
come here and pave a new way and show us all something different and enhance all of our lives as a
result.
Ms. Lauren Osowski, 14A Artillery Lane
| am also here representing the Adult Learning Center. We are asking you to support the Welcoming
America Initiative presented by the Mayor. Not only will it reinforce Nashua as a Welcoming City for our
1,110 students representing 74 different countries, it will open doors for the Adult Learning Center as an
organization. By joining the Welcoming America Initiative network non-profits such as the Adult Learning
Center will be eligible for additional resources, grants and networking opportunities. Please support the
original resolution to make Nashua a Welcoming City and join the Welcoming America Initiative to open
doors for our city.
Ms. Tracy Hatch, 31 Pennichuck Street
| am here representing not just my own personal opinion but that of the Greater Nashua Chamber of
Commerce in strong support of R-16-068. | got an e-mail this evening from Alderman Moriarty asking
me...telling me that he hoped that | had made mistake in sending in the letter of support from the
Chamber of Commerce the first time around and wondering if | truly knew what | was getting involved
with and whether the Chamber knew and | want to say emphatically that yes, we did. We and my Board
have taken a position in strong support of being a Welcoming City. Not because it’s a social service or a
social issue, although we do think that’s important, but because of the economic imperative for our
community. The Welcoming America Initiative, to clarify, is a non-partisan organization. Their goal, if
you look at their website and | have spent an extensive amount of time this evening doing that, not for
the first time, fosters opportunity for all to become a more prosperous community by making everyone
who lives in the community feel like they belong. Transforming communities into vibrant places where
people respect each other and everyone’s talents are valued and cultivated. That is not partisan and
that’s not left wing. This was the first time in my life anyone’s even come close to telling me that | am left
wing. | didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that one. It doesn’t say anything about illegal immigrants
and amnesty. A few rhetorical questions...does anyone here think our current immigration policy is
working? Does anyone here think that conversations about that issue would be better if we had more
and not fewer people involved in that conversation? Does anyone here really think that adopting this
resolution as introduced means that Nashua is expected to solve that issue or even to take a position on
it because | don’t? This resolution is about being welcoming and opening the doors for economic
opportunity and development in our community. Our Chamber right now is involved in conversations
both with India and with Israel about bringing economic development and opportunities here to our city.
How much more difficult will it be for me to talk to them about that if our Board of Aldermen says we are
sorry, because we think there is some hidden something somewhere on a website of some national
organization we are going to say that we are not welcoming. That’s not what | think you all believe. |
hope that’s not what you all believe and | hope that you will also support the resolution as originally
introduced by our Mayor.
Rev. Tom Woodward, 36 Hampton Drive
| come to you because | kind of reacted very strongly to an e-mail that | got last Tuesday but | see the
Mayor’s motion as being emerging out of what we are as a community and I’ve seen Welcoming America
influence many different things in the community from the Adult Learning Center to the United Way and
the work of the Granite State Organizing Project, all directed towards welcoming and shaping our
