Mayor's Comments - 22 Jan 2008

     I looked around.  My friends were all colors and religions ... kids I was in scouts with or played baseball with, ate at their homes and listened to their stories of the past ... different religions, different ethnic heritage and from every color you can expect.  During the Viet Nam war these kids all bled the same, Red White and Blue. What was the big deal? The big deal was equal rights for all and that we must understand that we are all Americans and understand that our forefathers, as they entered New York harbor, the first person they saw was a lady of the color green, the statue of liberty. We as a society must look at the man not his color, not his religion but what he stands for ... nothing more or nothing less, and remember the quote of the man we honor tonight, the Rev. Martin Luther King:

"The time is always right
to do what is right."