>> thank you very much, mr. mayor. this is a highly emotional moment for me to see this. when i heard about it, i said, no, please do not do that, i am embarrassed. until i heard it was between jfk and mlk, jr., drive. then i thought, i would like to go there and bear witness to the greatness of those two men and bring all of you with me. here we are today to thank you, mayor lee, for your tremendous leadership of our city. it is an honor for me as the first -- lots of firsts around here. first woman speaker of the house to be receiving this honor from the first chinese-american mayor of the city of san francisco. a source of great pride to us that only begins to tell the story of what the mayor means to our city and the progress he has made in already a very short time. you're honoring me with this award, and i am forever grateful to you.

i look forward to continuing our work together for the government of the city. san francisco leads the way. what we do well here, as franklin roosevelt said, if you want to do something well, do it in san francisco, or words to that effect. [laughter] i would like to thank john burton for being here. just on a personal, official, a political note, john, my dear friend -- my dear friend, who was the chairman of my campaign 25 years ago -- that was rlly an experience. a winning one. i am so honored that john it took the time. he does not go that many places, right? the very idea that he is here in the middle of the afternoon and dressed for the day -- [laughs] i am going to be in big trouble. more on john in a moment. i want to thank phil ginsburg,

thank you very much. for your leadership and for making this all possible. i know that megan is here. i used to bring her bacto the pk with my daughter all those years ago. and larry. please extend my thanks to the other members of the commission as well for this great honor. so here we are. 25 years later. i will talk about that, but this relationship of our family and the park goes back more than 40 years. but over the past 25 years, working with six mayors, now senator feinstein, agnos, jordon, willie brown who may be joining us, with mayor newsom, and now with our great leader, mmirror -- mayor lee, i have had the privilege of working

with these mayors. that would not be possible without the work of so many of you here. some of us were on a trip to liberia for our colleague who is newly deceased, but this was several years ago. he was being honored. there were a barrel -- building a library in his name at the african methodist episcopal church in monroevia, liberia. it was boiling hot. there must have been 18 or 20 speakers. everybody that got up named every speaker before him and everyone else in the room. one of the people got up there and said, to all of the distinguished people who are here today, on their granted. everybody cheered because that meant he was not going to mention all the names. but i am is a wonder that so many of the official family of san francisco are here. i am delighted to see my sister

in a friendship and my sister in congress is here with us today. thank you, anna. as she knows, and one of the things we were able to accomplish, what ever you name, without the work of our colleagues from the bay area, from california, on these issues. jim hormel and leroy king or cochairs come along with madeleine. john was the chairman. we all took orders from john. i am so glad that so many of our friends are here. the head of the san francisco labor council, thank you. [applause] let me say that some of you know -- again, i could name every one of you in reference to the issues that have been discussed, and you probably think that i

will, but i told you that story. here is the thing, let's go back 25 and a half years ago. i had no thought in the world of running for congress. i did care very much about the city. i had the position that john is now holds but without all of his credentials as chair of the california democratic party. but i never thought in terms of running for congress. it was because of a woman who decided that a woman was going to follow in her footsteps that i decided to run. at the time the issues were, what you think about health care? i would say, tell me what you think about health care for all americans as a right, not a privilege, and i told them. they wanted to know what we do to fight for more funding for hiv and aids, and i told them. the issue at the time is marriage equality now. but then it was domestic partners. someone said to me, i have one question, do you support domestic partners?

i said, yes, i do. that was his litmus test. we have come a long way since then because of the work of so many people. but again, phillip did so much for the parks and our country. he was a hero in that regard. some say he did more than anyone. maybe he and teddy roosevelt or something like that. anyway, it was a proud tradition to follow him. the whole point was that we could go to washington, d.c., and succeed with some of the things the mayor mentioned because what we were doing in san francisco was a model to the nation. it was of national significance, because it was community-based. what ever happened to be, whether it was about hiv and aids, about a fourth of housing, about transportation, what ever it happened to be about of job creation. when i first went, i said i will take a map of san francisco and see how many jobs we can breed. cecil, remember, we looked to see where we could create jobs.

housing, transportation, whatever the issue happened to be. nature and the federal government gave us two opportunities. one was the earthquake, which provided an opportunity for change and some resources that would otherwise not have come for us to make some significant improvements in san francisco. you know, the freeway and the restoration of city hall, geary, the list goes on. he was a part of so much of that, too. and then the closures. we have 30 two square miles in my district. the whole city -- 32 square miles in my district, three base closures did you think that in the country they could average it out differently. hunters point, treasure island, and the presidio. so that gave us an opportunity to think in an innovative way about public-private partnership, in a way that san francisco once again led the

way, taught the nation how to do things in a different way. and now that goes on. every initiative we have in the american recovery and reinvestment act was something that works here because we are a model. we know how to get things done. we not only helped ourselves, we helped the country. about this park. this is a very personal. i look at the academy of sciences, and my kid christine will tell you, who is here with bella. and paul pelosi, jr., over there. they used them as toddlers and run through the halls of the academy of sciences, the planetarium, the japanese tea garden. all of that. little did we know that 40 years later this would be happening and there would be grass growing on the roof of the academy of science for the thermal management of the planet. science, science, science. we came here to learn that the

academy of sciences. we came here to play in the park. we came here to smell the flowers. naomi, she is to put out the word, the rodos are here. that met the road no danger blossomed. anybody that knows this park, they know that is a beautiful location when those flowers come out. now listen to the music. over time, it was wonderful, never as wonderful as when warren hellman it left us with his strictly bluegrass and then it hardly strictly bluegrass. thank you, nancy. isn't it wonderful that warren hollow is near by? we can to learn, play, listen to the music, smell the flowers. we came to recreate. to my friends, all of that, to recreate. that is a very important word. and your assignment, your role

is such an important one. but think of that word, to recreate. said another way, re-create. it is important to the life of a person and community that people renew themselves and restorer, re-create as they recreates. this is so important to the life of our people in our city and our community. so wonderful that we're near the national aids memorial grove, national. [applause] when that was established, anna was there. she held us. some people said, i do not haveh for one ellis, one disease. others would say we should not do it here but in our district. some did not want to have it. the others did not want it for themselves. we went out. we put it on the same bill, the

presidio trust bill was leaving the station. i am not sure they all knew they voted for it, but -- [laughter] that is how we got here in the first place with the presidio. again, i have pictures that i brought when my kids were really small -- i mean, really small, nearly 40 years ago. we hired someone to record our family of the time. he said, tell me with the most beautiful place is in san francisco. of course, we brought him to golden gate park. so some of the pictures are there from that long time ago with my five children. then we have some from just a matter of months ago when my grandson's were here for the growth -- grove's anniversary. and then a matter of weeks ago when we had our work did the national aids memorial grove. right, jack? jack was there.

i wanted you to see the time going by, how long our relationship is here and what this means. imagine, imagine -- imagine, it is hard for me to grasp, that this would be between jfk drive and mlk, jr., drive. i was at john f. kennedy's s inauguration as a student. i heard him say on that freezing cold day, much more freezing cold than this, what he asked us to do. ask not what he can do -- you know, the whole thing, that is not what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country. the also said after that, but people do not know, his next sentence was cut to the citizens of the world, ask not what america can do for you but we can do working together for the freedom of mankind. that sentence is something that has been really a began -- beacon in addition to the

original part it. my father was part of the administration. so i am honored in the name of all of you in the people of san francisco to bear witness to his work and martin luther king, jr. i was at the margin in 1960. guess what, i had to leave. i cannot stay for speeches. i had to leave because i was going home to get married. paul and i will be married 49 years at the beginning of september. there was ample 28, but guests are coming in, and i had to get going. but i did see the march come in, and it was meant as a. and my brother tommy later became mayor of baltimore. he worked with martin luther king, jr., on equal accommodations, whether it was housing or restaurants or whatever it was in the transition time. so this has a lot of history in making this a very emotional day for me. it is a wonderful honor.

it is a wonderful honor. it is just unbelievable and staggering, and i am only now beginning to accept it. mark buell, thank you for making this possible, for making such possible in our community over and over again. that that was -- that is why i was so honored that you ed sees the were in the gallery that day as we made history and now we make progress. i want to see why. every good thing that happens, you have a hand in. thank you for that. thank you for making this possible for me. [applause] it is about a city. the biggest honorable -- honor of all is to walk onto the floor of the house of berbers and those and speak for the people of san francisco. san francisco. liberty and justice for all is what we care about. nondiscrimination in the rest is

our hallmark. where we talk about the environment as god's gift that we must preserve. every issue that you can name. the education of our children, creation of jobs, health care for all americans as a right, not a privilege. health security for our seniors from a clean fresh air for our children to play and thrive. a world with peace in which we can all make our contribution. san francisco is such a hotbed of it. when i talk to my colleagues, i say in our city, the beauty is in the mix. we have so many people who are so involved from so many different communities, representing every religion or not. every nationality from around the world. and it is that vitality that is the strength of america. but as i said that day when mark and others, many of you here,

were up in that gallery, i am here to represent san francisco in values, i said, and want to express them -- [applause] i want to express them the way our patron saint expressed them. st. francis of assisi. the song is our cities and them. make me an instrument of peace. where there is darkness, bring light. where there is hatred, love. forgive is to be forgiven. it is a wonderful and them. it is about san francisco values, and that is -- no honor is greater than representing san francisco on the floor of the house, except maybe having your signed between martin luther king, jr., and jfk. thank you all very much for this

wonderful day. [applause] i just want to do a special shout out for mimi because she has been with all of us every step of the way. what a great honor that you're with us today. thank you so much. [applause] >> before i ask the woman's jazz ensembles to conclude the program, at the risk of offending ever become i will announce a few more people i see in the audience that deserve a shout out. that would become a representing the golden gate national recreation area, frank, the superintendent. gregg, president of the golden gate national park conservancy. crag, executive director of the

presidio trust. nancy has been acknowledged from the board. in the chairman of the presidio trust, co-chair of the golden gate bridge seven of the anniversary which will be this sunday night, philip ginsburg, my boss, who has done so much to restore san francisco parks, and we're going to continue to do that. [applause] with that, thank you all very much for coming. it is a big wonderful family when nancy is involved. with that, i am going to ask the women's jazz ensembles to conclude the program. ♪ [singing in foreign language]

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♪ >> ♪ all night i'm dreaming of you all day i dream you all night i'm dreaming of you all day i dream you ♪ [vocalizing] >> ♪ every time every time every time

every time every time oh ♪ [vocalizing] [applause]