>> so, welcome everybody. welcome, that's right. give yourselves a hand. we're alive. we are ain't dead, it's no funeral right. it's about saving lives. before i start, i just

want to acknowledge speaker of the house and her team for being here. nancy pelosi, thank you. i want to acknowledge our mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. my sister. [applause] so it's a pleasure to have you here in the alley in the selma and i got acknowledge my brother the chief right there. chief of police, sfpd. originally from la but he's in frisco with us and our new da, my sister, ms. brooks jenkins. thank you. i got to give a shout-out to mom's demand action in the house. the brady campaign, the sftd, all the united playaz here helping us out and i do not want to forget my return citizens and brothers and sisters who recently came out home and i want to give a shout-out to our

reentry brother, frederick who did a life i tense and omar and davis who recently came home after doing over three decades behind the walls and even more recent, i want to give a shout-out to my brother, anthony and my uncle in the wheelchair, doug who came home from doing almost 50 years. welcome home, guys. and all the rest of reentry guys who are here. i got to make sure i give a shout-out to sbd, my brother who cleaned this area all up, big ed who did a life sentence and give a shout-out to everybody making this happen, my brother southern richards in the building. thank you, brother. and all the mothers who are here and you will see them speak. i just want to say this right here is an

investment in our community for our kids and the reentry. this whole building back here that we newly are going to open through my guys, alan and chris who helped us finance this, he's going to be a building for kids to learn how to read, for literacy and it's going to be for gentleman who came home from restorative justice reentry so we're the elementary to the penitentiary for reach, y'all. [applause] so i want to thank you for you guys investing and believing in us because we got to make sure that we have places where we can bring our kids. one of the kids who was in our program, i hate to say my nephew who is recently in a tragic situation last night, nancy, he got shot. it doesn't -- i don't know, it's in god's hand and he's in general right now fighting for his life. in the same place is from our neighborhood where he's from, london. so it's close to home

and so this is why we stand in what we do what we do because we're fighting to end senseless gun violence and we want to make sure nobody, no families, nobody, no mothers have to go through the ache and the pain and the tragedy of the senseless violence, so we stand in solidaritity with all our beautiful people, i want to thank the panels of this building right here, swirl, and brother eli for making this mural happen through every time, my sister alex. if i missed anything, hopefully you'll share. but i want to say this is what we stand for and this is what united playaz foundation is build on. we want to ride and live now. we don't want to ride and die, we want to live. we don't want to, you know, say rip

all the time, we want to say lip, live in peace. we want to be here so we can have events and functions where we can come together and say guess what, we celebrated in the great words of maddie scott, we're going to graduations and not funerals so with that said, i want to bring up the house speaker of the united states of america, my sister, she would have been my ex but -- [laughter] nancy pelosi, y'all. [applause] >> i love you. >> i love you too. thank you very much raudy and thank you to united playaz for all you have done and all of rudy's comments, he was talking about one place or another and i remember our first very big anti-gun violence rally in front of san francisco general, remember, rudy, when we

were in front of the san francisco general with the positions who were bringing healing, hopefully to those who were there, so we're like a family to each other. we've been together over and over, how many times mayor, have you taken the lead in churches, on an annual basis on some occasions, mother's day on other occasions, whatever it is, the mayor has been there. she speaks from personal experience of what growing up in the neighborhood, the hood, her neighborhood was about, so thank you because it's not only that you have taken the lead politically, officially in every way but you're always there sharing the stories of the loved ones. and maddie of course, what can we say about maddie scott? what did she say her say, she said let's stop the killing and start the healing and maddie scott. i don't see it was the last time, but the second to last time i saw her she was shaking hands with the

president of the united states at the signing of the bill. nobody had no more right to be there than maddie. it was remarkable and the president understood that. the president understood that and she's led us in many ways and i'm glad to be here with laura. thank you, thank you for sharing your story with us and again, again the mayor and others from city hall, our officials, our law enforcement, thank you. thank you, chief and thank you da and thank you all. so here we are. i say to my colleagues, we just passed assault weapon ban in the house of representatives. people thought we wouldn't do it, we didn't have the courage to bring it up. people would run and hide but they didn't. they voted for the bill. and i was saying to maddie, not just all politics but civics, if we win two more senators that share our view in this next election two months

from today, we'll be able to pull back, hi darling, we'll be able to pull back that filibuster and pass the background check legislation and again the assault weapon ban and make the world safer. i say to the colleagues and congresses, you're political survival and i say that to the republicans, your political survival is nothing compared to our children as we try and protect them against gun violences so thanks moms, where are you darling, moms demand action and brady against violence and all organizations that worked together. we can do so much maneuvering in the country, the outside mobility skeletonization you're the ones who are -- mobilization and you're making this happen. the outside mobilization, the volunteers, as i say the volunteers and politics and volunteers in politics are our vip's. and

thank you for that outside, but we will, how do we say it, every meeting, we're not stopping until the job is done. and what a model, united playaz is to the country, that's why rudy is on my case because we have $4 million in our house bill for the building and we're intending to bring that check the next meeting as soon as we can get the bill done. [applause] but that's, what we call a personal request of the speaker, so i think we won't have too many problems with that. but again, let's look at each other and say how many times have we seen each other at these meetings and how beautiful it is to see an every widening circle of friends but this is about our children, their safety, you know the record, more children die of anything else combined in the country than gun violence. how could it be? one hundred people

a day die of gun violence, five of them little children, little children. so, thank you. thank you for what you do. thank you for being a model to the nation, from our own community, it takes a hood to say the hood. that's what we say. when all of this goes on, we cry about it and the rest we say, we don't agonize, we organize, we're going to get the job done. thank you all and let's say thank you to rudy for being such, thank you rudy. [applause] thank you, rudy. i said it earlier. our mayor has been a model to the country, to the world, today she welcomed the queen of the netherlands and did so beautifully, representing our city, our values, finding our common ground. but it would be hard to think of any event on gun violence prevention that the mayor hasn't taken the lead on or been at or sent her

representatives if she happens to be not in town and that would be very, very rare. we're very blessed in so many ways with her mayor-ship whether it's covid or whatever it happens to be because it's always about the people. it's about justice. it's about fairness, about respect and she and i share a thought. when rudy was talking about our brothers who are just returning now from some other experiences, i was thinking of the gospel of matthew and the gospel of matthew he says when i was hungry, you fed me, christ said, god says, when i was hungry you fed me, when i was homeless you sheltered me and when i was naked, you clothed me. when i was in prison, you visited me. a very important value for us to have. [applause] we share that value, we all share our respect for our great

mayor, mayor london breed. [applause] >> well, first of all, i have so many thoughts running through my head at this moment because of all the people that are joining us here today. madam speaker, we are so lucky and blessed to have you as our speaker of the house, as someone who continues to fight for the things that are so dear to us. i think that you know, people don't really realize the battles that you deal with on a regular basis, not with making sure that san francisco is okay and that you know, united playaz and other organizations and resources are provided but also taking care of the entire country. looking at the bigger picture of why

getting the right people in office is so significant, traveling all over this country to raise money and to elevate the message because when it is all said and done, getting the votes for so many important policies that help us address this issue, that's what makes change and the fact that you worked tirelessly on the safer communities act, what you're doing around assault, banning assault weapons and i just can go on and on about your leadership because it's helping all of us, you know, meet the need at this time, meet the challenge and come together in this remarkable way, so we are grateful for your leadership and when i think about what's happened over the years, i think about my childhood and growing up with maddie scott's son and

just george was a great person and then i see his sons now and it breaks my heart that he never got a chance to see what amazing kids he created but we are here to also make sure that they know who their dad was. you think about these kids who never even had a chance to go to prom, so i show up for these events whether i'm supervisor, mayor, it doesn't matter, a title matters not to me. what matters most to me is making sure that the next generation of young people growing up don't have to continue to experience the pain because of the loss of their relatives due to gun violence, of witnessing someone getting shot and killed in their face at the age 12 which is what happened to me and people i grew

up with. worried about what is happening in their school. doing drills to make sure that they are protected from gun violence in schools. i want to recognize and appreciate maddie scott, rudy, and shawn richard especially because for years these were in the trenches with no funding, no support for many, many years doing the hard work when no one was paying any attention to this issue in the capacity we see now and it's not something that we wanted people to have to experience. that's why they fought so hard. we never wanted organizations to have to emerge for this purpose. it is so heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time. but i still have hope. i have

hope because all of you are here, because of brady, because ever moms demand action, because of the consistency of rudy, shawn and maddie scott and because of our fearless leader, madam speaker pelosi. i have hope that we're going to get to where we need to go because it's not just reacting to these situations after they occur. it's about prevention too. it's about investments. it's about getting to our kids before they even get to that point where they even think about picking up a gun, before they -- that shouldn't be a thought in their head and part of that journey of trying to get to a better place means investments and this is why in san francisco we invest a lot of resources into programs and things that we know are going to make a difference, that we know are going to have a

tremendous impact not only of our young people but also though who may or may not have made a mistake in their lives and come home and deserve a second chance. they deserve an opportunity and then we hope that the next generation will learn from those experiences and never want to get in a position like that where they get locked up in the first place. there's work that needs to be done and we're doing the work in san francisco. and i'm grateful and proud of the work especially that our police chief is doing, we got a $6 million grant in order to address violence prevention in order to invest in preventing the kinds of outcomes that happened because of gun violence from happening and i'm grateful to be here also with our district attorney brook jenkins and our supervisor matt dorsey, partners in the efforts to ensure that when we talk about -- [applause] -- criminal justice reform, we're talking about real

criminal justice reform, real second chances and preventing problems from happening in the first place. we have so much work to do but i'm still hopeful. i'm hopeful for the future. i'm hopeful because i know we're going to continue to advocate until the job is done. i'm hopeful because of the investments that we're going to continue to make. we had a couple of really tragic incidents that occurred in san francisco over the last couple of weeks. heartbreaking situations, things that should have been prevented. there's a lot of hurt people out there because of this and maddie scott always say hurt people hurt people. and so, healed people are a blessing, they are a blessing to making sure the world is a better place. it's time for us to continue to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. we have a lot of work ahead of us but all of you make such a difference in the work that's ahead and i'm excited to be working with you on getting

the job done, so thank you so much again to all of the folks who are joining us here today and at this time, i really want to bring up a woman who needs no introduction. you know, ms. maddie, i have known her since i was a kid and you know, she's a spiritual woman, she's a praying woman and godly woman and it wasn't just about her kids and her grandkids in our community. she always showed so much love to all of the kids in the neighborhood. it's why she developed a reputation for being the person that everyone goes to especially when they are going through a very challenging time in their lives, so maddie, you have uplifted so many people in your life so today we uplift you and we thank you and we thank god for you for your work and everything you have done, for

sharing your experience, turning the tragedy of your life into an advocacy moment that turned lives around, even if you can't see it everyday, it has happened and so we thank god for you and we appreciate you and at this time, ladies and gentlemen, let's give maddie scott a round of applause. [applause] >> thank you for that, mayor breed. who would have been my daughter in law, y'all. [laughter] okay. i was working on it. [laughter] i was working on it. but first giving honor to god for allowing all of us to be here today on this beautiful day. it is for his glory that his sun is shining down on all of us because he knows our hearts. he

knows each and every one of our hearts and he knows that we care, we care about lives. he knows that we want to better day for our children. he knows that. and so i'm just grateful that all of you are here today. i'm very humbled and very proud to be standing before you where i turned -- where i was able to turn my tragedy into triumph and turn my pain into purpose. i could no longer lay myself on the crouch drinking myself to death and locked up and secluded and locked up and i have a praying mother that just turned one hundred years old, y'all. one hundred years old. [applause] and i have to honor her today because i wouldn't be standing here today, you all, if it wasn't for her because i wanted to give up. i wanted to die. i

felt like the world had killed me when my son's life was taken and she said no, no, no, no. no, you must go on. you must go on. you must get up. you can't quit. and so, i honor my mother everywhere i go and i thank god for her and i thank god for our ferocious speaker, congressional leader that represents us here in san francisco, that represents our nation and our country, house speaker, not just our speaker but our friend, our sister, our mother, she's a mother, so she knows what we are feeling. she knows what we go through and that's none other than house speaker nancy pelosi. our congress leader. [applause] who i'm so dedicated and grateful to for choosing me to be one of the california

electors, to cast the vote for president biden and vice-president, our girl kamala harris. i'm grateful for you giving me that opportunity. i thank you and for our mayor london breed.... [applause] and to our mayor london breed who has been a champion all through the community from aaa cc to the mayor's at city hall, being our mayor at city hall, we're grateful to you, mayor breed. your heart is just full of compassion. we thank you, speaker pelosi, leona bridges and christine and all of that are involved every year, every year, every year, they put on a

dinner for us for mother's day. we were in front of city hall protesting every mother's day because we wanted people to know what mother's day felt like. it wasn't a good day for us but because of leona bridges and the, and mayor breed and christine, we thank you guys for what you do for us at third baptist church every year and dr. amy sea brown as well. you make our mother's day happen, you do. yes! and to our chief of police, chief scott who came in and rolled up your sleeves and do work with us continually to help fight this situation that we have with crime and violence. we have a remarkable team and don't let me forget our brady team. our brady team is on the ground 24/7, you all, 24/in

legislation, and sheila hamilton, our vice-president of organizing and kat, i always get -- i can't say her name right but anyway, i want you to know that everyday, everyday, every month, we are in meetings, every wednesday we're in meetings, on the ground running from dc, all over the country to change legislation in this country that's going to be better for our children with the school memo project, with safer storage, okay and our governor gavin newsom who passed majority of every bill we put forward in the state of california and rudy corpuz, my brother from another mother. my partner, i want to thank you for all you do, how you always represent us mothers and how you always keep your door opens and you and misha and your staff and welcome home to all you brothers and welcome

home to all of you because we mothers, we have been to san quinton and we're not afraid and we went years ago, what was it 20 years ago, men with no more tears and we shared our grief, our pain and turn their lives around and low and behold, look what we have. we have brothers and sisters coming out of quinton and vacaville and other places to do this work and that's what we need and want, to turn it around because we don't agonize, we organize. we don't agonize, we organize. let's say it. we don't agonize, we organize. come on now. we don't agonize, we organize shawn richards, my brother. shawn richards lost two brothers from

gun violence. at my side ever since and knew my son. shawn was with us because when there was a gun (indiscernible) at the palace, that was a week of violence and sunnyvaly sunnyvale, but brady unites mraz y'alls and my sister who taught us to go out and protest and fund a cal palace and we wouldn't allow you to sell guns in our community. that's activism, you all. that's activism. that's activism. that's what we do. we don't agonize, we organize. we don't criticize, we organize. we don't jeopardize, we organize. because these (indiscernible), this is about all of us than none of us. we will stop the killing and

start the healing, we will go to graduations and not funerals. we will vote for those senators that we need in the white house to change this demographic of gun violence around in our nation. we did it with the woman's movement. we did it with the civil rights movement. they said we couldn't do it and said we would never vote and never stop jim crowe and they are saying we'll never end gun violence and i have faith. i have faith of a mustard seed that we can and we will stop gun violence in our nation because this is about all of us and all of us mom's against gun violence demand action, all lives matter. you know, i look at us today and i'm so grateful and so thankful, i have a grandson on the way, my

grandson -- my son is a grandfather in heaven and he has a granddaughter and grandson on the way. i thank god for that. i wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you all. i wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you, for god, for my mother, i wouldn't be standing here, you all. i be would the couch and so that's why i worked so hard to pick up other mothers, that's why we work so hard, liz and sherrie and all of our mothers when another mother is in trouble, we're there to pick them up, to lift up their bowed down head, so we're praying right now because today is one of our dear sisters who has been on the battlefield a long time and today is her daughter's anniversary, i don't know if she's here. sharicia, 24 years ago she was killed violently on third street. so today, we honor s hr ika wesley because lynn gives her life 24

hours a day to this job, leading with mothers, leading at the crime scene and preparing the funerals, after care with us to help those mothers and our healing circles so lynn is not here but we honor sharika and honor lynn for all you do. oh, we're grateful today. you guys have made my day today. i'm grateful to our mayor breed who was the first mayor, you all, to sign the ghost gun ban legislation, the first mayor in the country with our board of supervisors and katherine stefani, we had great leaders here, from our speak are to our mayor, to our supervisors and to our police chief and to all our activist. to all of you and to speaker pelosi staff, dan bernal, mr. hope, christine who is not here, all of your staff

and mayor breed, your staff. they are always there for us no matter what. the people behind the scenes. we thank you. we thank you because we couldn't get this job done without you because this is about all of us and none of us. we wanted to go to graduations and not funeral asks we want our kids to excel and not look over their shoulders while in a classroom and we want them to play freely on the school yard, so the only way we're going to get that done is in the voting booth, y'all. in the voting booth, you got to vote and support the senators from ohio and pennsylvania. you got relatives and families back there, spread the word. spread the word to get those people elected because those people represent us you. they represent what we do on a daily basis because as i say, this is about all of us or none of us. we will stop the killing and start the healing. all lives

matter. all lives matter because i want to hear you say it, we don't agonize, we organize. can i hear you. we don't agonize, we organize. i don't hear you. we don't agonize, we organize. we organize for justice, for peace, for life, for goodness, for education, for housing, that's what we do. we don't agonize, we're going to organize and right now, i want to bring up my sisters who lost both her sons who i loved dearly who has been in this trenches with me for over 20 years inside of san quinton at the vigils and on the phone midnight trying to come many a mother down telling her to put down that bottle and going to another mother's house in the we hours to comfort her, that's the work we do, that's the work you don't hear about. to prevent suicide and as you

know, this is suicide prevention week. so, pray for our families, pray for our children. pray for them because we have a fentanyl epidemic going on and other violence going on but thank god for our leaders who represent us and thank god for united playaz and brady team and i love each of you and you're in my prayers, brother damian, just for us and i love you my brother. so right now without further or do, i want to bring up liz torres from healing for our families and our nation. [applause] >> hello. my name is elizabeth torres. ah, a native san franciscan. and mate that you brought up sharon. many of you

know don't know that sharon teaches mothers when alive and taught me in san mateo county, daly city police department how to deal with investigators. she told me what to get, what to bring, be prepared she said, be prepared. and i did. and i always keep that dear to me, so god bless you, sharon. i have to read because off the cuff, it's too emotional, so i want to stay on script here, so please forgive me. good afternoon, my name is elizabeth torres of healing for our families and nation. and mores in charge. i am the proud mother of francisco garcia pena, age 19, in 2004, when he was murdered with assault weapon. five years later, my son garcia age 24 in

20009 would be murdered and back in 2004, there weren't many places a mother or family members could go to do seek help beside the witness, not the witness, i'm sorry, 850 bryant and then god bless mitchell salazar, he said hey i've got folks you need to meet and he introduced me to mattie scott at a healing circle and that was the first time a mother could go to a place like that, confidential, protected, just to release all the hurt, the burden and i had a lot of anger back then. a lot and it almost drove me nuts going in the street, odd

hours, places i should never be going to, looking for who killed my kid. and it's devastating, devastating. so, you do not want to imagine the shock, the loss, the trauma, the daily pain of years it takes to go from victim to survivor. it takes all the strength and will of a higher power in you to fight back, to refuse to accept that our sons and daughters can be stolen from you without consequence, to have to return and perform and produce as though these traumas never happened. i have been in this battle for over 18 years for gun violence prevention and education with the help of my family and community. i have solicited help from being not

incarcerated and providing support while going through the jurisdiction system in my son's case. that's the clean aspect of it. but i was going to san quinton, was to offer anybody a care package, money for word on how to solve my sons' cases and i couldn't see myself living, breathing without doing something, fighting, no, you cannot take a child from parents, kill them and then just go about your business, no, you can't. you've got to fight back. and there was a lot of tug back behind those walls because they felt like, i got a story. i've been hurt, you know, it's not just you, you mothers coming behind the wall. we got something to offer too. and it

took a few years but we got it. we got it and surprising, they actually helped me -- when the people that were responsible for my son's first death, they actually helped me because the biggest fear i wanted to address is i wanted to know, what happens to you when you're behind the walls? do you think of the victims that you have murdered? because our families sure thinks of you guys. and i know that's not popular but they honestly answered me and that was the biggest console. they helped me in court and guiding me, i'm asking them, why isn't he looking at me? why aren't they looking at me? they robbed me. they stole something from

me. and they would explain and teach me no, they cannot. they cannot do that. they've been instructed not to do that. so, i got it. so, i give a lot of my healing to no more tears because it helped me deal with my anger and they were honest enough when i asked the most intimate questions, do you think of the victims on the day that you murdered them. do you think of the birthdays? do you think of your birthday while you're here? and they said to me that, you know, when we go to sleep and we rest, everything goes. but it's waking up and dealing with that and moving on in the yard, in the cell block, that's what it is and it just helped me. it helped heal me. i have consulted

with parents that have been affected by violence, sharing my experience and navigating with law enforcement and the superior court system. i'm so appreciative of this administration for all the positive work taken to combat gun violence, giving us hope and that justice will prevail with an urgency has much-needed and we have waited a long time but i'm glad that god got you in the right place. thank you! and thank you to (indiscernible). i want to personally thank you, house speaker nancy pelosi for representing us in congress, for commonsense legislation and to our mayor london breed who signed the ghost gun legislation and to our brother rudy who are from united playaz and his team for your leadership, strength

and guidance and who took the time to be in attendance and today i would like to introduce laura. [applause] >> hi. thank you so much to speaker pelosi and united playaz, thank you for inviting me today. i'm the managing director of law center to prevent gun violence, our organization was founded in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy that took place at a law firm at an office building in san francisco, 101 california street. not to far from where we stand today. in 2016 we joined forces with the organization founded by former congresswoman from arizona gaby gifford and she was shot on january 8th, 2011, while meet with constituents in her hometown of tucson, arizona, is and the shooter killed six people and wounded 13 but despite her

injuries, gaby embarked on rehabilitation and her commitment to the american people never wavered to this day and she leads our effort as an organization to save lives from gun violence. gun violence is a crisis that is growing at alarming rates, gun deaths have been sparking across the nation in 2020, there were over 45,000 gun deaths and preliminary data is telling us that in 2021, it will be close to 49,000. the violence is expansive, but the toll of everyday gun violence is disproportionate are felt in black and community communities and this is a marathon not a sprint. it's something we have had success with in the state level in recent years, since the tragedy at sandy hook elementary in 2012, we and others in the gun violence prevention movement some of whom are here today

helped pass more than 460 state gun laws in 45 different states and? laws like filling loopholes in domestic laws were flagged. let me say that that act is the most significant gun safety legislation enacted in nearly 30 years and it was a tremendous victory. [applause] some of the things, the legislation does many things including barring some of dating partners from obtaining firearm, making straw purchasing and trafficking federal crimes and investing in programs that support community violence, intervention and prevention and many other things. but the enactment of this historic law is just the beginning. the law will only be effective if we fully and safely implement it. that's why gifford is working federal departments, sub agencies, state and local officials to implement this law.

i wanted to mention two other bills passed in the house. the protecting our kids act which, if enacted it would raise the federal minimum age to buy a rifle or shot gun and ban gust guns and have a gun access prevention law and other things and in july the house passed the assault weapons ban with five bipartisan support and it will ban the manufacturer of assault weapon for civilian use and gun owners can maintain their weapons and ban the manufacturer and sale of large are ammunition magazines which is the thread in mass shooting. gifford been at the forefront of this fight for a long time and we're not backing down. we need to keep the momentum going and we need courageous legislatures like nancy pelosi and i need to introduce claire from moms

demand action. >> good afternoon, this is a mural of my son camillo. i want to start by thanking ael ex, from mom's demand action and rudy from united playaz for making this happen and i would like to thank eli who was a childhood friend in camillo, they were going to the middle school together. he was born and raised in san francisco. it's a city he loved so much. he worked as an emt for ambulance as he went to paramedic school with the goal of working for the san francisco fire department. the day after he finished paramedic school he went out to celebrate and shot ask killed by a 21-year-old stranger as he was leaving the club and i was told he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. and that

seems to describe our country at this moment in time. we have a problem with gun violence and too many mothers who live with this unbearable grief. this is a mural of camillo but it represents all those who we have lost to gun violence, to sense ms gun violence and all of us who stand up and say we don't have to live like this. i also want to thank matti and elizabeth, when they spoke, we all -- we all lost our children in different ways, our children were all different and as mothers, we have experienced the same things and i was on the couch for many years drinking and i often, i also found relief going to san quinton sitting with the circles and i went out in angry and came out with my heartbroken and i remember sitting in a circle of offenders who committed homicide when they

were teenagers and i told them i dedicated my life for working for gun violence prevention and that's my way of dealing with this and every one of them said, wow, if there wasn't a gun so easy to pick up when i was a kid, we wouldn't be here. we're not monsters. it was easy. to bring speaker pelosi up, i want to speak of my mom, i first met speaker pelosi at john luis's sit-in congress and my 88-year-old mom was there and loved to follow politics and i asked speaker pelosi to meet her which she kindly did and my mother went up to her and say i will not die in peace until you're speaker again. [laughter] and then a few years later, she was and we were at a vigil, at a church in san francisco and she came over to say hi to my mom

and my mom said to her, now, i can die in peace. [laughter] and then she turned to me, and said she understands because she's catholic. and my mother died in year at 92 years old in peace. thank you very much. >> [audience awe] [applause] >> and may your mother rest in peace knowing that you are at peace or striving to be there. it must be very hard. well, you see this, it says, see what it says here, it says gun violence prevention day of action. it's a day of action around the country, and what better place for us to observe it here in san francisco than with rudy and united playaz and with our people who presented today. and with each and every one of you,

so we can say thank you to you. i'd like to recognize one really important word that we saw demonstrated here. courage! courage, the courage of mattiei and the courage of elizabeth and ms. torres, oh my gosh, and claire, your courage, your courage. it's really hard for us to imagine how we would cope with such a thing and then use that grief for action to help save other lives and comfort other people. let us salute their courage. that makes a difference. [applause] and laura, thank you for talking about the gifford and all that is happening with activism and all of this. when this bill, the bill that we passed and became law that mattie was shaking hands with the president a minute after he signed the bill, when we were passing it, we

thought is this really enough? is this really, should we settle for -- you know what i'm saying to you because it was so much more we wanted. we wanted background checks and assault weapon ban, we wanted some more things and i said to louie mcbeth, i said lucy i give you my vote and leadership of this caucus. if you say it's okay, we'll have the democratic vote for it and she said we absolutely must make this progress. so for all of us who wanted more, when we always want more, with lucy who lost her son jordan and she dedicated her life to helping alleviate the pain of others, she said it was good enough for her for now, for now, nonetheless, it will make a difference and she said it will save lives and she spoke beautifully to our caucus in

that regard. and so then we're here with our mayor, a leader, a model to the nation on how to channel the energy to guide the legislation, to make a difference, thank you, mayor on this day of action. and again, to see camillo, how beautiful with his giant's cap and his friend who portrayed that and to hear you claire, talk about him and your mother, multi-generationally and all of this, so this is a day of courage for the moms and we spend a lot of times, don't we, with the survivors and no words are adequate to comfort them. only action to get the job done to prevent further violence is a comfort. but we take their guidance, we listen to you. we listen to you and your wisdom, your strength, your courage

makes the difference, so i have no doubt that we will get the job done. our president is committed to it. you know how much time he spends with survivors and he has lost children not from gun violence but he's in that club, so the survivors welcome him in a different way than they might welcome the rest of us so she's determined that we will do more. and of course elections have ramifications. so all we want is we're not saying somebody should vote democrat or republican and everybody to vote for the children to stop gun violence for legislation that will do just that. so i'm here to say thank you to all of you for making our san francisco take of action, to prevent gun violence -- to make prevent gun violence so successful and drum beat across our nation to save the

children, so thank you for not agonizing but organizing and thank you so much. rudy, where is he? let's bring him back up. rudy, i don't know how he was as a little boy and ran around and i can't figure that out. [laughter] >> [audience, he's still bad.] >> whatever it is, he's god's blessing to you. thank you rudy. i yield back. >> hailey wants to say hi to you. >> come on, josh.

>> all right. hello, everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm really -- [applause] ex -- excited to be here today to swear in the future of san francisco. [cheers and applause] i want to start by thanking and acknowledging the board of supervisors joining us today. thank you for the president of the board of supervisor, are walton and safai who represents district 11 and melgar who represents district 7. thank you so much for joining us here today. [applause] and let me tell you, all of the supervisors and i, when we were kids, we probably, probably

wouldn't have thought that we would be leaders of the city. [laughter] because we weren't as responsible as the young people that we see here today. we were having a good time, yes. [laughter] we were going to school because we had to, yes. [laughter] but to take a step like this and apply to be a part of the youth commission is significant. it means that you care about understanding what it means to be involved civically. what it means to give back to your city, to your community, how you understand policy, how you advise people like the mayor and the board of supervisors on things that matter to all of you. it is significant because on top of the work that you're doing in school, your extra sir rick lar activities or sports or anything else and going out and hanging out with your friends and having a good time, you're also investing the time

necessary in order to really make a difference in the city, but also make a difference in your future and so it really is great to be here with all of you to swear you in today for the first time in a few years in person because we've had to do this event online for the past couple of years because of the pandemic and let me just also acknowledge that i know it hasn't been easy for you throughout this pandemic. i can't even imagine if i were in high school during a global pandemic and not able to hang out with friends or to show up to school everyday and to have that sort of environment and you did it online and you still are engaged in wanting to do something for your community. i want you to take a lot of pride in this role and i also want you to commit to this role to show up and to not be afraid to provide your input. i don't care how other people feel about what you say. if there's something on your mind and there's something

on your heart and you believe in it, be fearless in your pursuit for what you believe is important to change policy or to change things in san francisco. others may not always agree but we can also be respectfully disagreeable, make sure diplomacy is a part of the conversation, make sure respect is a part of the conversation because we are really all in this together as we learn from the pandemic and having diverse opinions, having diverse conversations. it's the hallmark of our democracy. it means that we are potentially progressing because there are things that you know that someone else may not know and your ability to share your experiences can make all the difference in changing that person's heart or mind on an important policy decision. you know, we have a lot of disagreements here at city hall.

i'm sure you hear about them but we still know how important it is to work together because at the end of the day, despite our disagreements, there are so many other things, more things we agree on than things that we disagree on. it means that we keep working hard in trying to get to that point where we can make great things happen for the city and county of san francisco. i'm proud of the work we do and just a quick example, free muni for youth, the people who served on the youth commission before all of you and some of you may have participated on the youth commission, it happened because advocacy for young people. when i was a kid, i didn't always have money for bus and sometimes we would get on the bus and the bus driver wouldn't tell us to leave because they knew we were trying to get to school. there are people who may be able to afford that pass fast or clipper card that you all now use but

there are others who can't. and your role and your advocacy on the youth commission or the people before you brought that to the attention of policy leaders like myself at the time when i served on the san francisco board of supervisors and a number of other people and we worked together to come up with the resources to make muni free for young people in san francisco. that is because of the advocacy of this body. it is a powerful body. one that i know each and every one of you will play a significant role in making such a difference in doing great things for san francisco. so i'm really excited, proud and honored to swear you in. so at this time, can we please stand up. to all of folks that we're swearing in. i see somebody's daddy standing up back there. [laughter]

all right. please raise your right hand or how about this. how about you come this way, face the crowd and i'm going to turn around because i know all your parents want to get pictures. [laughter] >> all of you guys face one direction or in the middle. yeah, in the middle. there we go. look at all these young people. yes! i love it. all right. are we ready? i don't believe you. are we ready? >> audience, yes. >> okay. please raise your right hand and repeat after me, i, state your name. do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. >> [repeating] >> and the constitution of the

state of california. >> [repeating]. >> against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that i bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation. >> [repeating] >> or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties. >> [repeating] >> upon which i'm about to enter and during such time as i serve as youth commissioner for the city and county of san francisco. >> [repeating] >> congratulations!

[cheers and applause] >> all right. we're going to take a picture here. we'll get a few pictures in just a moment because we have two special guests that's going to be saying a few words as well. oh, okay. all right. there will be plenty of time for more pictures but we want to have a few special guests say a few words and then

that will complete our program. i want to also just express my appreciation to all the parents and the guardians and the grandmas and the grandpas and all of the people who are here today to support their children and to support this amazing community because it does take a village and your support means a lot being here today. so, with that, i'm going to ask all of our young new commissioners to have a seat and i'm going to ask the president of the board of supervisors, shamann walton to come up and say a few words. [applause] >> thank you, madam mayor, good afternoon. >> [audience, good afternoon] >> welcome to the high lath of my day. i was talking with supervisor melgar and she was talking about how exciting this is and every time we see our young people step up and take leadership positions, that's a

joy for us. you may or may not know, most of our movements start with young people. youth is usually at the center of the big movements that happen in this country and in this city and across the world so being able to serve as a youth commissioner here in san francisco is a big deal. i want you to remember your oath and the positions that you -- you hold because this is a big deal and taken serious and the policies that you push for, when you knock on my door, you knock on supervisor safai's door and knock on the mayor's door and the policies you push to get implemented in san francisco are lasting policies to you're a part of decision-making for city and county of san francisco and you should be proud of that and we're proud of that and i want to say congratulations, i look forward to working with all of you. you can reach out to our offices, we will respond and set up a time to hear from all of the youth on the youth commission to see the things

you're pushing and working on, so we can be supportive. thank you and congratulations. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, president walton. i want to also ask a young person who actually served on this body to come forward. she served on the youth commission and is now a freshman at stanford university. ladies and gentlemen, welcome adrianna zang. [applause] >> thank you so much, mayor breed for the introduction and for supervisor or president walton for speaking. seriously, elected official support means so much and of course, thank you supervisor safai for being here. hello to all of the new commissioners, to parents, supporters, family, friends, first off, congratulations on these new commissioners.

[applause] it is beyond exciting. my name is adrianazang and i was the former chair of the san francisco youth commission and i was the district seven appointee by supervisor melgar. it has been an absolute joy serving on the san francisco youth commission. for the past two years, i was the district 7 representative and to be honest, i still remember that very exact moment i received the e-mail in which then president norman yee appointed me and i screamed, i cried, i yelled to my parents that i got on the commission and to all of the supporters here, you might think i'm crazy, you're probably right but i know all of these commissioners here today can resonate with that sentiment. truly bias aside, this commission is the best youth commission in the world. i mean, it's a huge statement and i will back it up, don't worry.

um, for the past five years alone, i can name so many achievements that have pushed san francisco towards a more just and equitable future. for example, mayor breed mentioned pre-muni for youth and the next thing is the 2020 ballot that lost by one percent and maybe we'll try again in the near future. we closed down juvenile hall. we created a participatory town hall that had over one hundred youth voices. i mean, how many commissions in the world can say they've included youth in which they are truly seen as equitable partners? and in san francisco, we have. and so that is because of your leadership and that is why i want to share, i promise to make it brief, a few of the lessons i have learn here for the past two years. to commissioners, staff and adult allies are here to

support but do not be afraid to push for your belief. in this nation, we've seen the black lives movement. we've seen the moment for social justice and climate justice and gun control, all led by youth and this is not because of some crazy conspiracy or crazy thing that youth have ideas, it's because you all deserve to be here. and you do have these ideas and i urge you to push for them. the second thing is ask questions. you are appointed for a reason and you deserve to be here, yes. but you are not here only because of what you know but also because of the potential for you to grow and learn and finally, take advantage of every single opportunity. i remember when i was in the vote 16 campaign, i was quite literately thrown into cameras and action and walk and protests, that was so foreign to me and i know it's foreign to many of you but it has been the most exciting and most growing

period of my life. and so finally, to adults and the supporters and elected officials, you all know how amazing these youth are and you treat us and you should treat us as genuine decision-making partners. i say this a lot and many of you have heard it but it's true. there is absolutely no downside to hearing from young people unless you're afraid of what we have to say, so thank you and congratulations. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. very impressive adrianna and we're happy you're doing well in school and those public speaking skills will probably come in handy in the future. [laughter] so, with that, i want to again say thank you all so much for being here today. really proud of each and every one of you, make sure again, that you speak up, you speak out, that you support one another. that you keep it positive and diplomatic, that you set an example for even

the younger generation that's coming up behind you because they are going to be watching you and we're going to be watching you but importantly, we're going to work with you on policy decisions that will hopefully make a real difference in san francisco, so congratulations and thank you all for being here. [applause] and now, picture time.

>> i personally love the mega jobs. i think they're a lot of fun. i like being part of a build that is bigger than myself and outlast me and make a mark on a landscape or industry. ♪♪♪ we do a lot of the big sexy jobs, the stacked towers, transit center, a lot of the note worthy projects. i'm second generation construction. my dad was in it and for me it just felt right. i was about 16 when i first

started drafting home plans for people and working my way through college. in college i became a project engineer on the job, replacing others who were there previously and took over for them. the transit center project is about a million square feet. the entire floor is for commuter buses to come in and drop off, there will be five and a half acre city park accessible to everyone. it has an amputheater and water marsh that will filter it through to use it for landscaping. bay area council is big here in the area, and they have a gender equity group. i love going to the workshops. it's where i met jessica. >> we hit it off, we were both in the same field and the only

two women in the same. >> through that friendship did we discover that our projects are interrelated. >> the projects provide the power from san jose to san francisco and end in the trans bay terminal where amanda was in charge of construction. >> without her project basically i have a fancy bus stop. she has headed up the women's network and i do, too. we have exchanged a lot of ideas on how to get groups to work together. it's been a good partnership for us. >> women can play leadership role in this field. >> i tell him that the schedule is behind, his work is crappy.

he starts dropping f-bombs and i say if you're going to talk to me like that, the meeting is over. so these are the challenges that we face over and over again. the reality, okay, but it is getting better i think. >> it has been great to bond with other women in the field. we lack diversity and so we have to support each other and change the culture a bit so more women see it as a great field that they can succeed in. >> what drew me in, i could use more of my mind than my body to get the work done. >> it's important for women to network with each other, especially in construction. the percentage of women and men in construction is so different. it's hard to feel a part of something and you feel alone. >> it's fun to play a leadership role in an important project, this is important for the transportation of the entire

peninsula. >> to have that person -- of women coming into construction, returning to construction from family leave and creating the network of women that can rely on each other. >> women are the main source of income in your household. show of hands. >> people are very charmed with the idea of the reverse role, that there's a dad at home instead of a mom. you won't have gender equity in the office until it's at home. >> whatever you do, be the best you can be. don't say i can't do it, you can excel and do whatever you want. just put your mind into it. >> alright! that's why i love doing these things