Winter Park, FL, Council Meeting
23 January 2022
Joseph Richardson (269 words)

It is an honor to be here today to represent the Central Florida Freethought Community and your atheist, agnostic, humanist, and other non-religious constituents.

Winter Park has always been a vibrant and interesting community. My personal experience with Winter Park began approximately 50 years ago when my mother and I would visit the Little Professor Bookstore on Park Ave. It's no longer there, of course, but the draw of Winter Park has remained for me as for so many others who want to attend its college, visit its gardens and museums, as well as live here.

And so I encourage you to continue this legacy and work together to find solutions for the problems you face today. Turn the focus away from differences you may have and turn it toward the similarities shared by the citizens of Winter Park. It is our similarities, our collective hopes and dreams, our mutual love for our friends and family, our shared desire to build a better future for us and our children, our common humanity that bring all of us together and allows us to cooperate to improve the lives of all Winter Park citizens. Each one of you, by your commitment of time, energy and resources, helps to make this vision real.

We have a bright future ahead of us in Winter Park, individually and together. And we are depending on your abilities and integrity to lead us to that future.

May your decisions and actions today and every day be guided by our common goals, by a sensitivity to our differences, and by a commitment to find the right solutions.

Thank you.