Mayor Steve Patterson described his visit to Ukraine to the City Council during its meeting Monday. When asked after the meeting, Patterson had no comments on the Gaza ceasefire resolution that was passed by the council Feb. 19 when Patterson was in Ukraine.
Patterson spent three days in Lviv, one day in Rivne and six days in Ostroh, the sistercity of Athens.
“It was life-changing to be over there and engage with my counterparts but also with the citizens,” Patterson said. “I had scheduled for discussion and lectures, and air raid sirens would go off on us, so we’d have to migrate into an air raid shelter and continue that discussion with the students.”
Patterson said he met with business leaders and the Rivne Oblast government and also visited the Field of Mars war memorial in Lviv. He said the citizens of Ukraine were greatly appreciative of U.S. funding.
“Every agency, every government, every citizen that I engaged with said, emphatically, ‘Thank you’ for the funding that Ukraine has been receiving at this time of unjust invasion by a foreign entity,” Patterson said.
Patterson told the council it is imperative to continue supporting Ukrainian interests against the “full-scale invasion” by Russia, which started Feb. 24, 2022. He also said Ukrainians as well as himself are worried about the longevity of U.S. funding to Ukraine.
“(Ukrainians) also asked that we do whatever we can to encourage Congress to reauthorize continued funding,” Patterson told the council.
Patterson said he will be attending the Congressional City Conference in Washington D.C. held by the National League of Cities, or NLC. He added that he was asked to serve on the NLC’s 2024 Presidential Task Force to interact with presidential candidates, which he called “an honor.”
Athens resident Eliot Kalman, a Jewish, disabled Vietnam War combat veteran, read Council a poem he wrote called “Res Ipsa Loquitur,” which translates from Latin to “This matter speaks for itself.” He spoke out against the resolution demanding a de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza that he called not well thought out.
The poem is very critical of Hamas, which he called a “thugocracy.” His poem said Hamas are the ones “who hold the prison’s key.” It concludes by saying, “If they’d just turn the lock, we could all walk free.”
The meeting adjourned after Kalman’s poem reading.
