when she learned she would not be able to be in town for the celebration, but she did ask me to bring a few words from her. she asked me to say we did it. congratulations. thank you, louise. louise had been talking to the speaker for how many years before she was speaker? it is an exciting day. she asked me to share a few words with you. dear friends, this is indeed a historic day. the commemorate the opening of the new laguna honda hospital and rehabilitation center, which is the most modern, green, and technologically sophisticated hospital of its kind in the united states. thank you to dianne feinstein, who made it a priority, and to the city attorney who championed and continues to champion this project. many thanks are owed two majors -- to mayors jordan, brown, and

newsom, and thank you to mr. elsbernd. we should all acknowledge the leadership of the late john neely and the chief nursing officer who moved the hospital into the 20th century. thank you to the staff of laguna honda hospital who are creating a new care model of community and patient involvement. the hospital has long been recognized as a center of excellence. the new facility further advances recommendation. the design brings a small-town feel insecure community which can integrate the patients and residents into the broader civic life of semblances go. the hospital has an impressive collection of art that will not

only contribute to the healing environment but also provide a new destination for art lovers. the historic passage of comprehensive health care reform by college represents -- by congress strengthens medicare and ensure sustainability for years to come. it improves benefits for seniors and makes prescription drugs more affordable, and it recognizes the needs of those with disabilities by making significant investments in long- term care services. this is a great day not only for the patients and residents of for all san francisco. thank you for this opportunity to extend my deepest gratitude to the hard-working people who have made this new hospital and rehabilitation center possible. please accept my best wishes for a memorable celebration. sincerely, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house. [applause] >> i want to acknowledge the

assemblywoman who could not attend. her good wishes are extended. i also want to say as part of thinking about louise's role -- sell resilience reject sal sorelli mention sharing the campaign with louise and i. you really did it with us. labour has always been our friend in the department of public health. we do great things together. that was an amazing victory. thank you for that. the saddest day that i have ever had was the day john died. it was very hard for me. i had never lost anybody who was actively working for me at the

time. at one time i had to face the tremendous personal sadness that i felt that losing a friend of mine and i also had to recognize that like any leader of an organization and had to help the organization to get over its in the sense of processing its own feelings, staying true to its job while we were all in morning. laguna honda is a vibrant 24- hour seven day a week operation. you could not stop life to mourn for john. we also had to keep laguna honda running. but at the same time so many of us were bereft of having lost to john. and having to deal with that was extremely challenging. i have a picture of john next to my desk. i will always remember him and his commitment. part of what i had to figure out

on that day immediately was what was in charge of laguna right now. that is how things are. it was a sudden death. we were not at all prepared. but even at that moment, someone had to be in charge of laguna honda. you cannot have a hospital running without a license administrator in charge. i chose someone i have tremendous faith and, and also somebody that john had tremendous faith in. and i know that it was always intended. john had intended that succession. but it was not obviously going to be in the way it happened. it was going to be in a number of years. she would have had a chance to mentor into that role. people would have gotten used to her. when he felt we were taking care of he would have moved on. that was his way.

instead, she was suddenly catapulted into this job in a much more difficult circumstance than anyone imagined, at a time when everybody was morning. the building was not yet finished. there were a number of challenges. but she rose to all of them. and what she has in common with john is that she wakes up and sees what is in the best interest of the residence. that is what we do this for. it is on that that every decision should be changed. she keeps that foremost in her mind. she has done a fantastic job. i am sure that in that laguna honda corner of heaven, and john is looking down very proudly at her. [applause]

>> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for spending your saturday afternoon at laguna honda. at the new laguna honda. san francisco has much to be proud of. laguna honda has been providing compassionate care for san francisco hit safety net for over 150 years. we will continue this tradition for the next 150 years to come. second, the new laguna honda, as the most modern rehab and skilled nursing facility in the first certified leed hospital in california, we will deliver on being a model for other facilities around the country and the world in long-term care and rehabilitation care. and most importantly, laguna

honda is a community for healing and wellness. you will see this for yourselves as you speak to our staff. thank you, mayor knew some, -- may newsom, mayor brown, jackie speare, the former president of the health commission when prop. 8 past, the health commission, turner construction, derek miller, the arts commission, the staff of laguna honda, our labor partners, and the entire san francisco community for your support in ensuring laguna honda has a bright future. [applause] i will end with a "from a

resident of laguna honda. thank you to the citizens of san francisco for backing this wonderful dream you had, and thank you to the many residents who actively supported the dream. thank you. [applause] >> appropriately, the person who will have the final word on today's ceremony is our president of our resident counsel, elizabeth cutler. we are so proud you are here and we are looking forward to your comments. >> i have to unfold my papers. please be patient with me.

all of the patients know what i mean. thank you. i want to say is an honor to share this platform with so many accomplished people. i feel thrilled to be among you and to speak to this assembly today. more than that, it is a joy to represent the residents. i am thrilled that you have allowed me to be a voice for some of their feelings and concerns. and i want to tell you a bit about us as residents. we came from all different walks of life in the city. we have had jobs having to do with construction and bus driving, and we have had white collar jobs, and we have been independent artists and writers.

the full spectrum have come to laguna honda. and in our day we were great participants in all of the city life. difficult circumstances, sometimes crushingly difficult, have brought many of us here at last to laguna honda. not at last for some of us. despite all differences, we need the healing that laguna honda is famous for. some people who come will be rehabilitated and will leave sunday. others will need 24-hour care for the rest of their lives, and so they will look forward to spending time in the spending -- in this building for years to come. it is exciting to have a new building. it is even more exciting to receive a new model of care, care that is resident centered,

care that honors each person as an individual instead of a body in a bed. care that involves talking to us, and more important, listening to us, hearing our voices. so many have worked so hard, has you have been told -- as you have been told, to bring the state to pass. and now we have a dazzling new setting to present to you. when you leave today, you will be going home. but laguna honda residents will not be leaving. this is our home. and it is very important to us. we are already here. but please come back and visit us frequently. this wonderful new laguna honda would not exist without you. i just want to add a personal note. my younger sister, emily, was a resident here for many more

years than i have been. she was greatly loved. we lost her recently. i would like to dedicate this speech to her and remembered her, as many of the residents do, with great fondness and affection. thank you all. [applause] >> i would like to invite you all nowi that good enough? this is a participatory ribbon cutting. it requires nothing more complicated than this. i will ask you to count down,

not up. upon conclusion, we will applaud the great works of turner construction, the dedicated men and women who are still toiling inside to get this project completed, which begs the question when will the residents be moving in that? there is an easy answer -- soon. [laughter] [crowd chants a countdown] [applause] go ahead in an orderly manner.

>> i am going to hope the others, dignataries are underway. our bishop, james langston, would you come at this time, please? we're going to ask our bishop langston if he would provide for us today the invocation. please, sir.

>> we recognize our lord and savior. rest on your feet in honor of who our maker is today, for this occasion for which we have gathered, and rest as we celebrate this invocation to kick off mary helen rogers june 2010 kickoff. we thank you for the time and space to celebrate this grand occasion. we've come a long way, but we recognize we yet have a long ways to go. we thank you for what you have done, and pray for your blessings on this occasion today ont hose who come forth. let their be joy and uplift as

you take us far beyond even our expectations, for this is your doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. we give you praise, glory, and honor. we thank you now. this is our prayer. amen, and amen. >> thank you so much, bishop. i am going to ask various -- perhaps one person in the audience who loves this song more than i do, i am going to ask if he would come in this time and meet us and lift every voice and sing. pastor brown, would you come and lead us? come on. [applause]

>> good afternoon. we are going to sing. when james weldon johnson wrote this hymn, he wrote it to tell a story. you don't see a movie until you see it all and see the conclusion. i ask everyone to stand, and if you don't have the words, we invite you to get a program. ♪ lift every voice and sing,

til earth and heaven ring ring with the harmonies of liberty let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies let it resound loud as the rolling sea. sing a song full of the faith that dark past has taught us, sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on til victory is won. stony the road we trod,

bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died. yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet come to a place for which our fathers sighed? we have come over a way that with tears has been watered, we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, out from the gloomy past, til now we stand at last where the white gleam of our

bright star is cast. god of our weary years, god of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far on the way. thou who has by the might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray. lest our feet stray from the places, our god, where we met thee, lest, our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,

shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand, true to our god, true to our native land. [applause] >> thnaank you so much. thank you. when i was a boy in sunday school, you had to learn all 3 verses and sing it yourself in front of class, and i have not forgotten. an interesting note, this song you just sang lost by one vote of becoming our national anthem,

and i wonder would it have made us a different nation if all these years we had been singing about this, whether -- rather than bombs bursting in air. just a thought, you know. you can think about that on your way home. the mayor is not here, so we will ask bevan dufty to give us a welcome, and followed by that, we're going to ask supervisor sophie maxwell to give us the mayor's welcome. thank you. >> good afternoon, everyone. let me first say my mood improved so much when i saw the little ladies of praise, ok? so you can think about the matters of the moment, but when

you see those ladies dancing, it changed my mood. i want to thank them. i am honored to be here. i want to congratulate montel jennings and the committee. this is the 60th anniversary of this celebration, and my colleagues, supervisors maxwell and mar are here. i want to give eric mar a round and welcome him. will you come join us? ok, no, he is taking off. i understand. i also want to say this is a special time for me, completing my eigth year on the board of supervisors. i worked for shirley chisholm, a

woman who ran for the presidency in 1972, and i had the privilege of working for her 3 years, and than -- then for julian dixon. he was the father i never had, and he mentored and shaped me. having the privilege to join mayor brown's administration, becoming director of neighborhood services, and the experience i have had working with african-american leaders in the united states. i want to take a moment to say that i will always list on my resume that i have voted for sophie to be president of the board of supervisors more than

anybody else, ok? [applause] not to tell stories out of school, but when i first got sworn in and thought i knew a few things, we sat there, myself, sophie and gavin, we voted over and over, and we weren't going anywhere. mayor brown gave me no plan b, so i kept voting that way. mayor brown doesn't tell you plan b, you have to stick with plan a, which is what i was smart enough to do. but one challenge that exists for our city to think about as we celebrate accomplishments is that san francisco cannot be a great city without strong

black leadership, and it has dwindled in the past years. as wonderful as it is that our city elected ms. harris to be d.a., she is taking care of business, but here at city hall, there are issues and decisions, and the need for representations at different levels is not where we need it to be in order to bring back what we have had in sna francisco. if we want a robust african- american presence in san francisco, we have to start at leadership levels. but sophie has been getting power plants closed, adver -- advocating for transportation plans for bayview, and moving

forward to make sure we have a redevelopment plan in bayview- hunter's point. she has been a regal presence for her people,a nd it is a difficult job. with leadership comes criticism, and we view criticism as an opportunity to succeed. i have to absorb criticism and go forth and be more informed. but she has never been deterred, and she has served in what i hope is a decade where many foundations have been laid, such as city bills, seeing representation from the african- american community is not there. we want people in construction, firms doing better, people at

the frontline of making things happen. and sophie says i am not just going to be angry, i am going to create a mechanism so we train young people and are prepared for it. i am looking forward to the parade, to the festival, to all the great things. i see many of our leaders in the media and corporate family members here, and i will always reflect on what sophie has done and will take that inspiration and be rededicated, because much remains to be done, and i will work to make it happen. now i will present to reverend townsend, a certificate from the board of supervisors