have the courage to become latoya? and actually step up and not give up. and so that's why we thought we couldn't get a better speaker today for a neighborhood empowerment necessary work initiative than someone who is empowered her neighborhood and networked her community across now this country. and notably and significantly in san francisco to talk about what she's done. she's an inspiration. featured in time magazine, new york times. "wall street journal." even tried to get her to run for political office she said, why would i do that? when i could do so much more as the head of the brood moore improvement association. or keynote speaker, big round of applause to latoya cantrell. [applause] >> thank you all. thank you very much it really is an honor and a privilege to be with you today among neighbors. i feel right at home because it's nothing better than grass-roots. i think that's what we all represent here today our neighborhoods our communities and that's really what makes all the difference. i do want to thank

[applause] >> the mayor is engrossed in the remarks that latoya shared with us. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco and the mayor wanted to present you with this. we want to thank you and we are honored to have you here today. >> thank you. this is -- they are telling me or you hear latoya this and that but it's the residents of broadmoore. we all have to depend on ourselves and one another. it's because of the residents of broadmoore that i'm here but because of the residents of broadmoore that broadmoore lives. put yourself and your community to live and susstain itself should a disaster strike. so, thank you so much. >> [applause] >> i would like to say that new orleans like san francisco is a tourist town. and the reality is while we had an incredible experience there and witnessed a level of devastation that's incomp henceable. imagine driving down geary and everything looked the same before the disaster. you take a right or left turn and all the homes between geary and the presidio and geary and golden gate park are burned down, empty or fille

. >> latoya. >> mahdi. >> and jamela, first stop was where? kuwait?r two days and visited the soldiers and troops there and from there, we headed to afghanistan for about a week. >> so afghanistan, miles from the pakistan border, right? >> yes. >> what was the reaction from the troops? >> they were super excited to see us, just as much as we were to be there and bring a piece of home to them. >> what do you have in your hand? >> actually, i have this flag was given to us, it was probably the most emotional thing that we went through the whole trip. it was on a combat mission and flew over the skies in afghanistan so we got it at about the 22nd tour like the beginning of the tour, so one of the cheerleaders who wasn't here today was able to pull it out from the crew that it came from. it was a big deal. really emotional. >> that's great. and i'm sure all the men and women are happy to see them but you also have a program, right, where we can adopt a soldier platoon. >> correct. when we were over there, we adopted the entire 101st airborne division. and

did when wendell was up here or sister marylou a little while ago, or whether we were talking about latoya cantrell or wendell pierce and all they were doing was grabbing their roots and holding onto them very tightly because that's what they knew. and it is uniquely american, i think, to be able to say, look, we've got no choice. and that's how we got the innovation because we didn't have any other way to do it so we had to create out of nothing. it was necessity that caused us to try to stay alive and it was that survival mechanism that actually got us into experimenting which is why you've seen some very innovative things happening on the ground. we're not happy that it's so hard and we absolutely believe that the city of new orleans is a canary in the coal mine for the rest of america. that the things that are happening on the ground good or bad reflect what's happening all over this country and we think the country will miss a very important learning moment if they don't see us as the most immediate laboratory for innovation and change anywhere else in the country so you see both good