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tv   [untitled]    April 6, 2011 2:30am-3:00am PDT

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a motion? please call the next item. secretary lt. falvey: the next item is adjournment. vice president marshall.: we are injured.
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>> he has looked at the quality. he believes in people and human rights. he's one of the greatest guys i know and i'm so happy that he is our major. i bring to you mayor edwin lee. [applause] >> good afternoon. welcome. thank you very much for that wonderful introduction. i have a lot to be happy about. this is the 100th anniversary celebrating international women's day and to tell you we have quite a bit to celebrate. we probably have the highest number of women commissioners
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ever in the history of the city today. isn't that wonderful we have clearly a good and growing balance of women on the board of supervisors, commissions, agency appointments, and department heads. i'm proud to be heading up this very complicated city. [laughter] one that does not let me sleep very much. certainly -- i said this in many occasions. these last eight weeks, i've fallen in love with the city evening the for the eight weeks ago because it's such a wonderful place to be. every community that i visite, t fascinates me how so many other people who work here, but even those who do not just love the city and they do what they can
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to make sure it is running well. it is very natural that as i am thrust with the responsibility of being mayor that i look for talent. i think a lot of the talent is with the women in san francisco. [applause] it has been my pleasure to have been an employee of this wonderful government for some 22 years now. to take you back, i had the pleasure of serving another majoyor some years ago, one that taught me a lot of things. one of the things that i recall back in the late 1990's, the early 2000's, was when i was the director of public works. there was this report that came out.
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it had been a conference at the united nations and this report was being taken very seriously by the commission on the status of women, but one of the things it had not been able to do was penetrate key departments of the city that had been male- dominated for many years. would you think dpw fit that description? it certainly did. this report was handed to me through the mayor's office. of course, the mayor then was mayer brown. and said, "what are you going to do with this?" of course, the first thing you do is read it with the understanding that there's probably a lot of information there that's going to be very hard and goals and programs that will be difficult to implement at the department of public works, which have historically
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been a very male-dominated agency. we made a commitment to the mayor that we would study that report and implement every single one of those as it applied to every level. i was willing to do that. surrounding the were a lot of other powerful women who said it would not be that hard. all you had to do was pay attention. all you had to do was not take no for an answer. all you had to do was look forward, not backwards. with those very little pieces of advice, we took on that task and we found mid-level managers. we found that many women that were trying to get even to the blue-collar work, the work on the streets, had to be treated more equally. they had to the processes that were fair. as we went up the ladder, we found it to be easier and easier because we simply paid attention
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to it in a short time, i was able to report back to our mayor that this program of implementing the principles and making sure that it happened in the very blue-collar department of public works was going on in a very good case. i was able to identify midlevel managers who were women. they were all there for many years, but they just were not invited to become part of management in an open way. i'm here to say to you that a lot of fire successes -- a lot of our successes reflect efforts made in the past. i do not think they were too difficult to make one to focus on them. a lot of that also had to do with the enthusiasm that the city has brought to making those
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goals are real. a lot of that enthusiasm came from the women's summits in san francisco. the one that i remember i did not even get a ticket to because it was so crowded. it's the one mayer brown introduced to the city when he revived the mayor's some -- when he revived the women's summit. i knew there would be a lot of things that came out of that. those of you in those days, you were fighting for those tickets. i just gave up and said what do i have to do. as we looked at the videotapes and the press events that followed, we were blessed with a lot of great insights. the encouragement from women of international stature coming from all over the world attending this summit. that makes it easy for me to say to you that the things that i'm doing now and the things that i
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have done are a lot credited to the predecessors that opened the doors for me and opened the doors for many women. it's very easy to introduce to you someone who has earned this title. this year's man of the year award goes to willie brown, jr. [applause] come on up. mr. mayor, thank you very much.
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i'm just delighted that you are in a position to be able to present this to me. i'm going to work and see if i can win it next year and i'm going to ask you to stick around. [laughter] [applause] and present it to me next year in your capacity as mayor of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee, you have got to know that the women of san francisco that you giave an opportunity to in your capacity as the chief administrative officer of the city -- even to the state, the person you designated to replace you, a woman. you elevated women to positions
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of importance inside of the mayor's office. i saw naomi little out there. one of your deputies -- i do not think they called them deputies anymore. every man has his impression on what happened in this city. i am delighted. i'm going to tell you. many of you on the women's summit when we did those -- when i look around and i see jackie and i think about susan and all the other women who headed the mayor's summit -- i hope that as your term unfolds, may yor, you will find athink distinguisn
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more ways than one. we clearly became the first city to champion what was supposed to be the process being led by the un. we were the very first city to do that with reference to women. [applause] i do not think there is any other municipality anywhere in this country that ever matched what we did in terms of trying to inspire women to become full participants in the pursuit of justice and equality. i'm just delighted, mr. may or, for you to present this award. to all of you will have been responsible, shelly, and others, i'm delighted. it's going to go on my wall. i'm going to prove to my
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daughter susan and to sonia that somebody thinks i'm a man of the year. [applause] [laughter] >> we have one more quick presentation before we do a couple of things. a couple of people mentioned the past womens' summit. jackie is one of them. there are others here. if we could just ask you to stand up. we want to recognize you for the work you did and the history you created. thank you. [applause] >> we have something else for mayor brown. i'm having to present him the jet by night -- jdei knight award for all the years he's been working in the death star.
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you know all the things he has done to support us. we especially want to give him this award for being the first state legislator in the country to find family planning for low- income women. in the 1970's, when he was on the national board of planned parenthood. i do not know if you know that, but i was there. we want to give him a weapon today to help us as a fundamentalists tried to take those rights away from us. mayer browor brown -- [laughter] [applause] >> may the force be with you. [laughter]
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they the force be with you and with us -- may the force be with you and with us. >> a jedi warrior. now you know what was behind that mask darth vader was wearing. me. >> at this time, i want to acknowledge a couple of people outside of our committee.
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>> good morning, everybody. i thank you for attending this, i wanted to share with you what my supervisor -- and thank you
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very much for being here. thank you, everybody, for joining on this occasion where i get to reappoint some very valuable citizens of san francisco who are sacrificing some very good personal time. i know what sacrifice and personal time is. i can understand that now. we have six wonderful people that are going back on five of our very important commissions today. i wanted to begin by introducing a longtime member of our commission. thank you for taking out this job again. george has been a friend for many years. he has also been a friend of this commission for quite some years. he has been practicing law since 1960. you have been serving in a number of capacities including
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the american cancer society, the co-chair of the cherry blossom festival. the citizens league, trusties of the world affairs council. the japanese chamber of commerce as well as the leader of citizens -- citizzends leagu -- citizens league. you have also been part of our great cultural fabric including playing the piano and being able to do the j-town jazz ensemble. the key for serving again and we will be needing your help with this budget. -- thank you for serving again and we will be needing your help with this budget. i know you came from michigan, we both came from snow.
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he moved here and you have been here since. you own your own gallery, and you have been housed in a number of contemporary art there as well. you have been working with our hardest locally -- at ranging from local to international. from working with yoko ono, it has been wonderful. you have been placing women in the spotlight. it has been a great value to us. the overall mission is to enrich the community with special projects and events. you have been a wonderful participant in our commission on aging. you have been there since 2007.
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your appointment this year has just reflected the wonderful level of service to us. to a master of arts, chair of the african american partnership. it is a wonderful back drop. i know the will continue to be important to the backdrop on aging. sonya, i have known you since you have headed the hispanic pages. being on a health commissioned,
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at st. francis memorial hospital, you continue to work as a part-time worker. you have been a share of the laguna honda hospitals joint conference committee as well. you have been serving on the commission since 2008. it will be heavily bras with financial constraints. -- barraged with financial constraints. you have had a long history of working with the city since the willie brown days. you have been part of public health, a focus on universal health care. you have been working with them
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for those years, working with the foundation. your also pointed on the health commission since 2008. we need you and your expertise to try to close the gap. i want to thank you for stepping up and being part of this administration. this is your first reappointment to the commission. we need the services of lawyers. you have been a very good lawyer at the time. you are a member of the firm. you have expensive -- extensive
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experience. if i have to use that service, you know i am in trouble. we talked about my desire to make sure the families are well represented. you contributed to that dialogue and dii want to thank all of you for coming out today for joining us as well. and with that, let us proceed to the official of that i have not yet memorized. if you would all stand and raise your right hand with me, if he would repeat your name, at the end, we will go through and announced the commissions they will be participating on.
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i do solemnly a firm that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states in the constitution of the state of california. that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california. that i take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.
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and the duties that i am about to enter, [unintelligible] for the city and county of san francisco. thank you and congratulations. [applause]
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>> welcome to "culture wire." today we're headed to smpling f. camera works, a premiere venue for artists working in photographer, video, and digital media. the latest exhibition lists clearness as a set of political alliances and possibilities that it is behind the sphere of dominant gay and lesbian culture. the curator fills us in on the process of creating this thoughtful exhibition. and what she would like you to take away from it. >> i co-cureated with danny, a chicago-based writer and curator. the conceptual framework is what it means to be clear and radical for our generation.
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clearness as a set of political alliances and possibilities, not necessarily related to institutions of gender and swam formativity. danny and i wanted the show to feel funky and to have a really tangible quality to it. so part of that was incorporated handmade objects and installations and beautifully printed photographs and videos. there is also a lot of opportunities to participate and to take postcards or to get the photo taken or sit within a tent made out of afghan blankets to watch videos. the exhibition is organized in three distinct galleries. in gallery one, which is the gallery designated to clear
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activism, there is an installation by the oakland-based collaboration and it's called "unleashed power." it's all focused on one protest that happened in chicago in 1991 with the activist organization act up, which was protesting the inadequate health care for people living in aids, and specifically it focuses on an act of police violence that occurred at that protest. the thing that is really interesting for me about that piece is that it brings us back 20 years to what clear activism looked like at the height of the aids crisis. gallery two features work that is related to intentionally communities that exist both within cities, also in rural spaces, and transient communities as well. the return features a no madic
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clear tribe, the people who join this tribe are often in various states of transition themselves, whether it's leaving behind previous gender assignments or corporate jobs or a life within cities. a lot of the work featured in the exhibition and a lot of the installations are handmade objects. there is a lot of do-it-yourself aesthetic and that handmade do-it-yourself feeling is something that mimics the idea and the reality of the alternative world making that we're trying to represent here as far as the self-sufficient community goes. gallery three features work that relates to the ideas of self-determinenism, alternative world making and utopia.
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visits can still participate in this -- visitors can still participate in this project. during the opening, we invite visitors to come in and try on these costumes, pose in front of the backdrop. he was really inspired by comic books that he read as growing up and thinks of this space as a post-apocalyptic monster portrait gallery where people can remain genderless once they put on the costumes. we think it's important that this be happening in san francisco, which is considered an ekpe center of the queer actual cure. the majority of the queer cultural events happen in june which has been designated as the pride month. which to me translates as the period of time in which people can be in cler