i was taught by my mentor, my fraternity brother, father fillmore graham, that if you believe it, and you see it, you can achieve it. and although he is not here with us today, if it was not for him, i would not be standing before you. i always want to pay homage to him for saving my life. [applause] i was taught by his mentor that the more you know, the more you owe, and that is how we will live every day of our life. you can bet on that. i am just excited to be in a position to help others. i know a lot of time in this city, everyone is focused on the differences in all of us, but i can assure you we will be focused on the commonality is said that we can get the work done to improve this great city together. the only thing i have in common with everyone in this room is that we will disagree at times. i can guarantee that. but we can, and we will work together to resolve the present issues in this city, with tax, with decency, and focus on those commonalities. we have to address affordability , homelessness, employment disparities, complete testing and cleanup of the shipyard, transp