May 2, 1961, Twin City News-Record
Please take a few minutes and read the essay above from the "How to Make Menasha a Better Place in Which to Live" contest. It reads as if it could have been written today...or at any time during the last 62 years! I bring this up, not to criticize the city, but rather to show that things do not necessarily change, despite calls for it, year after year. It reminds me of that old trope about the writer saying that: “Children; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room, they contradict their parents and tyrannize their teachers. Children are now tyrants.” And then it is revealed that it was written by Socrates in 470 BC. I think my generation was branded with similar comments in the 60's and 70's as well.
Whatever your views on Menasha are, it will always be a work in progress, just like any other city. And no amount of griping or Neenah envy will help make it better. With the city's sesquicentennial right around the corner, we would do well to take stock of what is good about Menasha and build upon that foundation and take pride in what we have achieved over the last 150 years.
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