New York City Mayor Eric Adams was at Bowling Green along with other city and community leaders to raise the Juneteenth flag.
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00:00O'Shea, you know those were not merely words on a piece of paper that Deputy
00:07Mayor Raspberry shared with us and I hope we have a moment to reflect on what
00:12she stated. The journey from where she is now a deputy mayor in the most
00:19important city on the globe to the arrival of her ancestors and I reflect
00:25on my own family's journey and the challenges and the difficulties that
00:31were associated with it and when I took office after the election I went to
00:37synagogue and previous years I went to Gori Island and visited the door of no
00:42return in the dungeons and we must understand those of us who made it to the
00:47shores of America who we are and what we went through the mere fact that we are
00:54here still able to communicate in a civilized faction to fashion talks
00:59about our resiliency our ancestors stood in dungeons for years many of them
01:05having to stand in their own ways not seeing the sunlight at all and even when
01:11arriving to the shores of the tragedy didn't get easier it got more horrific
01:16cabin doors were kicked in women and children were raped and sodomized they
01:23delivered their babies in the fields only to go back and have to continue to
01:27work from sun up to sundown that's the legacy of where we stood but that is not
01:33our complete legacy we had great institutions like Timbuktu and others they
01:39want to rewrite our contribution to not only to America but to civilization and so
01:45my role of becoming the mayor of the city of New York the second African-American
01:48mayor to do so I stand on the shoulders of mayor Dinkins but what is more
01:53significant than that is that because I was able to stand on his shoulders I was
01:58able to go one step further and what he accomplished it took a hundred and ten
02:02mayors before the Juneteenth flag was raised here we were the first
02:06administration to have that flag raised
02:10feet away from where our ancestors were sold into slavery feet away from where
02:17our ancestors were sold into slavery now they see their offspring being the mayor
02:24to allow this flag to be raised but being mayor is both symbolic but it's
02:30substantive also and the symbolism is raising the flag flag but what about the
02:35substance the substance is being able to have the first African-American to be the chief of
02:43staff second to be the chief of staff of the city of New York first African-American
02:47to be the first deputy mayor first Latina speaking male to be the police commissioner
02:52first woman African-American to be the police commissioner first Panamanian Trinidadian to
02:58be a deputy mayor first Panamanian to be a chief advisor of first first first first
03:05first first first first first you know so for me to get here and not ensure that we
03:12lift up but not only of our community but all communities over my shoulders to the
03:17left is the intergovernmental affairs is my international affairs person he's the first
03:25person of Russian speaking to be the commission of international affairs Ed Myrmanstein is able
03:34to benefit from my ascension to be the mayor and you could go throughout the lineage first
03:40Filipino to be a deputy mayor you know the levels of things that we've done in this city
03:47first East Indian to be a deputy mayor of when you look at what we have accomplished and
03:53roles to the levels that we are we said to the city the city does not belong to one ethnicity or
04:01one demographic it belongs to all the ethnicity that makes up this city and we're doing it through
04:06the voice in the eyes and the aspiration of an African-American mayor I am American but never
04:12forget I'm African I'm African and we should never abandon that fact just as other cultures should
04:18never forget who they are this country tells you you don't put your country last I'm not American
04:26African a Chinese is not American Chinese a German is not American German so on and so forth America says
04:34you put your country first you hold on to your culture you hold on to what you brought and you
04:39bring it to the common denominator of America and America is not perfect matter of fact it's perfectly
04:45imperfect but as long as we're here and we have the right to fight for perfection that is what we
04:52should accomplish and so this flag is being lifted because in 1863 when slavery re-ended parts of Texas
05:01all the way up to 1865 the reality was not known and those two years are significant because a lot of
05:09things can happen in two years we know that more than ever because in two years we turned around this city
05:14from the direction that it was in to the direction that it's in now
05:17so when you lose two years you lose a lot but now we must ensure that we don't desecrate
05:26the lives of our ancestors what do we do with our lives how do we have our own liberation
05:35and not only physically I know chains are no longer on our ankles and on our hands but the mental slavery is real
05:43every time we do an action that's harmful to one another or harmful to someone else
05:48that is mental slavery and so my goal is not to be physically free but my goal is to be spiritually
05:56and emotionally free then we lift up our ancestors and their contribution so I thank you for coming out
06:04today and allowing us to raise the flag on Juneteenth to celebrate the rich contribution we've made to
06:12humankind happy Juneteenth day
06:14well thank you very much to our mayor while we do the flag raising we will have a rendition of lift every
06:32voice and sing by catherine pillow from the juneteenth and white team
06:36lift every voice and sing
06:38lift every voice and sing till earth and cloud
06:50lift every voice and sing till earth and Sandy
06:57Lift every voice and sing
07:04Till earth and heaven reigns
07:10Ring with the harmonies of liberty
07:21Let our rejoicing rise
07:28High as the listening skies
07:35Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
07:43Sing a song full of the faith
07:51That the dark past has taught us
07:56Sing a song full of the hope
08:03That the present has brought us
08:11Facing the rising sun
08:18Of our new day begun
08:25Let us march on
08:28Till victory is won
08:35Thank you
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