Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 34
that really used it a lot. But even some of the other restaurants such as Martha's, which always had a lot outdoor dining, you
know, their current outdoor dining they have is typically more than adequate. We're the kind of people that go out and like to
eat outdoors. We often noticed, you know, even before the barriers were put up and COVID started, there was always
plenty of outdoor dining for the people that wanted to sit outside, not everybody wants to sit outside, you know, they believe
it's hot. | was born raised in the south to me it never gets really hot up here. So we always sat outside and there's never
been a lack of seating outside at normal times. So I'm definitely not for keeping the barriers up. That's concludes my
statement. So thank you for tonight.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Just so you know, there's a sign-up sheet next time if you come that you have to sign up for public comment
period. It's usually on the back table. Okay. We'll allow it this time. Thank you.
Alicen Hogan
No worries. | thank you very much. | would like to thank the Honorable Tom Lopez for his response reference the
miscommunication and | look forward to having a discussion with you further. I'd like to thank the Honorable Moran for the
points that you brought up in regards to mental health.
| would like to clarify with the two other members that took exception to the sound that | made when Sage was speaking.
Grief is expressed in a couple of different ways. What you heard was a bark of extreme frustration because | have had a 12
year old family friend shoot himself and kill himself because of the fear of going back to school with COVID going on. Okay.
That is the mental health value that's going on right now. So to hear that level of fear in the voice of Sage and other students
that are currently in our schools, they need guidance. They need help in understanding the statistics that they are reading.
The statistics that she was commenting on were absolutely true for the first variant of COVID when it first hit. But this virus
has evolved as viruses do and we have gone through Delta, and we have gone through Omicron - two phases of Omicron.
And at present, those symptoms are stuffy nose, fever, sore throat, cough, and what not but not the level that she thinks they
still are at. And that's serious. That's having a negative effect on not just our children but other people and that's why we
need to have open conversations that discuss the most relevant information and where we are at right now. Because it
matters. Open dialogue matters. Facts do change, signs do change. We all were trying to do the best we possibly could
when this thing hit because we didn't know. No one knew. It could have been the zombie apocalypse and you guys did the
best you could. But we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our children to not let them continue to spiral downward in an
echo chamber of fear that is fed through algorithms where they are locked in their tick tock, and their Facebook, and they
aren't having conversations...
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
30 in seconds
Alicen Hogan
...with people who have lived a little bit longer, who have seen a little bit more. | tell you as a veteran, holy smokes, the risk |
had to take to convince my young airman to go into an air traffic control tower in the middle of a war zone because it was a
target where they were going to get more than shot at, that's risk. That's real risk. That's more than .0099 bla, bla, bla, but
they did it.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
Times up.
Alicen Hogan
Thank you.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
Excuse me, Ma'am. Can you give your name and address please?
Alicen Hogan
I'm sorry. Alicen Hogan, 7 Hardy Street in Nashua, New Hampshire.
