Ms. Brooks jenkins. Thank you. I got to give a shoutout to moms 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 shoutout 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 shoutout 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 shoutout to sbd, my brother who cleaned this area all up, big ed who did a life sentence and give a shoutout 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, hes going to be a building for kids to learn how to read, for literacy and its going to be for gentleman who came home from Restorative Justice reentry so were the elementary to the penitentiary for reach, yall. [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 doesnt i dont know, its in gods hand and hes in general right now fighting for his life. In the same place is from our neighborhood where hes from, london. So its close to home and so this is why we stand in what we do what we do because were 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 youll 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 dont want to ride and die, we want to live. We dont 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, were 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, yall. [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 rudys comments, he was talking about one place or another and i remember our first very big antigun 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 were like a family to each other. Weve been together over and over, how many times mayor, have you taken the lead in churches, on an annual basis on some occasions, mothers 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 its not only that you have taken the lead politically, officially in every way but youre 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 lets stop the killing and start the healing and maddie scott. I dont 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 shes led us in many ways and im 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 wouldnt do it, we didnt have the courage to bring it up. People would run and hide but they didnt. 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, well be able to pull back, hi darling, well 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, youre 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 youre the ones who are mobilization and youre making this happen. The outside mobilization, the volunteers, as i say the volunteers and politics and volunteers in politics are our vips. And thank you for that outside, but we will, how do we say it, every meeting, were not stopping until the job is done. And what a model, united playaz is to the country, thats why rudy is on my case because we have 4 million in our house bill for the building and were intending to bring that check the next meeting as soon as we can get the bill done. [applause] but thats, what we call a personal request of the speaker, so i think we wont have too many problems with that. But again, lets 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. Thats what we say. When all of this goes on, we cry about it and the rest we say, we dont agonize, we organize, were going to get the job done. Thank you all and lets 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 hasnt 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. Were very blessed in so many ways with her mayorship whether its covid or whatever it happens to be because its always about the people. Its about justice. Its 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 dont 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, thats what makes change and the fact that you worked tirelessly on the Safer Communities act, what youre doing around assault, banning assault weapons and i just can go on and on about your leadership because its 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 whats happened over the years, i think about my childhood and growing up with maddie scotts 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 im supervisor, mayor, it doesnt matter, a title matters not to me. What matters most to me is making sure that the next generation of young people growing up dont 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 its not something that we wanted people to have to experience. Thats 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 were going to get to where we need to go because its not just reacting to these situations after they occur. Its about prevention too. Its about investments. Its about getting to our kids before they even get to that point where they even think about picking up a gun, before they that shouldnt 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. Theres work that needs to be done and were doing the work in San Francisco. And im 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 im 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, were 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 im still hopeful. Im hopeful for the future. Im hopeful because i know were going to continue to advocate until the job is done. Im hopeful because of the investments that were 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. Theres 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. Its 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 thats ahead and im 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, shes a spiritual woman, shes a praying woman and godly woman and it wasnt just about her kids and her grandkids in our community. She always showed so much love to all of the kids in the neighborhood. Its 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 cant see it everyday, it has happened and so we thank god for you and we appreciate you and at this time, ladies and gentlemen, lets give maddie scott a round of applause. [applause] thank you for that, mayor breed. Who would have been my daughter in law, yall. [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 im just grateful that all of you are here today. Im 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, yall. One hundred years old. [applause] and i have to honor her today because i wouldnt be standing here today, you all, if it wasnt for her because i wanted to give up. I wanted to die. I felt like the world had killed me when my sons life was taken and she said no, no, no, no. No, you must go on. You must go on. You must get up. You cant 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, shes a mother, so she knows what we are feeling. She knows what we go through and thats none other than House Speaker nancy pelosi. Our congress leader. [applause] who im so dedicated and grateful to for choosing me to be one of the california electors, to cast the vote for President Biden and vicepresident , our girl kamala harris. Im 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 mayors at city hall, being our mayor at city hall, were 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 mothers day. We were in front of city hall protesting every mothers day because we wanted people to know what mothers day felt like. It wasnt 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 mothers 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 dont let me forget our brady team. Our brady team is on the ground 24 7, you all, 24 in legislation, and sheila hamilton, our vicepresident of organizing and kat, i always get i cant say her name right but anyway, i want you to know that everyday, everyday, every month, we are in meetings, every wednesday were in meetings, on the ground running from dc, all over the country to change legislation in this country thats 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 were 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 thats what we need and want, to turn it around because we dont agonize, we organize. We dont agonize, we organize. Lets say it. We dont agonize, we organize. Come on now. We dont 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 yalls and my sister who taught us to go out and protest and fund a cal palace and we wouldnt allow you to sell guns in our community. Thats activism, you all. Thats activism. Thats activism. Thats what we do. We dont agonize, we organize. We dont criticize, we organize. We dont 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 womans movement. We did it with the civil rights movement. They said we couldnt do it and said we would never vote and never stop jim crowe and they are saying well 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 moms against gun violence demand action, all lives matter. You know, i look at us today and im 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 wouldnt be standing here if it wasnt for you all. I wouldnt be standing here if it wasnt for you, for god, for my mother, i wouldnt be standing here, you all. I be would the couch and so thats why i worked so hard to pick up other mothers, thats why we work so hard, liz and sherrie and all of our mothers when another mother is in trouble, were there to pick them up, to lift up their bowed down head, so were praying right now because today is one of our dear sisters who has been on the battlefield a long time and today is her daughters anniversary, i dont know if shes 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, were grateful today. You guys have made my day today. Im 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 couldnt 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 were going to get that done is in the voting booth, yall. 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 dont agonize, we organize. Can i hear you. We dont agonize, we organize. I dont hear you. We dont agonize, we organize. We organize for justice, for peace, for life, for goodness, for education, for housing, thats what we do. We dont agonize, were 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 mothers house in the we hours to comfort her, thats the work we do, thats the work you dont 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 youre 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 dont 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, its 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 werent many places a mother or family members could go to do seek help beside the witness, not the witness, im sorry, 850 bryant and then god bless mitchell salazar, he said hey ive 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 its 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 sons case. Thats 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 couldnt 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 cant. Youve got to fight back. And there was a lot of tug back behind those walls because they felt like, i got a story. Ive been hurt, you know, its 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 sons first death, they actually helped me because the biggest fear i wanted to address is i wanted to know, what happens to you when youre behind the walls . Do you think of the victims that you have murdered . Because our families sure thinks of you guys. And i know thats not popular but they honestly answered me and that was the biggest console. They helped me in court and guiding me, im asking them, why isnt he looking at me . Why arent 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. Theyve 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 youre here . And they said to me that, you know, when we go to sleep and we rest, everything goes. But its waking up and dealing with that and moving on in the yard, in the cell block, thats 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. Im 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 muchneeded and we have waited a long time but im 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. Im 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. Its 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. Thats 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 were 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 moms 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. Its 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 21yearold 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 dont 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 thats my way of dealing with this and every one of them said, wow, if there wasnt a gun so easy to pick up when i was a kid, we wouldnt be here. Were not monsters. It was easy. To bring Speaker Pelosi up, i want to speak of my mom, i first met Speaker Pelosi at john luiss sitin congress and my 88yearold 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 youre 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 shes 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. Its 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. Id 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. Its 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 im 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 its okay, well 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 were 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 giants cap and his friend who portrayed that and to hear you claire, talk about him and your mother, multigenerationally and all of this, so this is a day of courage for the moms and we spend a lot of times, dont 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 hes in that club, so the survivors welcome him in a different way than they might welcome the rest of us so shes determined that we will do more. And of course elections have ramifications. So all we want is were 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 im 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 . Lets bring him back up. Rudy, i dont know how he was as a little boy and ran around and i cant figure that out. [laughter] [audience, hes still bad. ] whatever it is, hes gods blessing to you. Thank you rudy. I yield back. Hailey wants to say hi to you. Come on, josh. My name is holly doudiet. H2 firefighter with the San Franciscowired. What inspired me to be a firefighter was in 2008 i graduated college. The recession had happened so there werent any jobs. I was having troublefinding a job. And i was kind of looking around. My dad was a firefighter and i thought what a great career he had. So i asked my dad, never thinking about it at first before. I said dad, what you think about me being afirefighter and he goes yeah, thatwould be a good idea. I took some classes, i ended up loving it. I grew up and actually and i think it was a good fit for me because its a physical job and its enjoyable. You never know whatyoure going to get and its a team effort. I first realized i was part of the Lgbt Community in sixth grade. I looked on the other side of the classroom and i sawthis girl i thought was really attractive and i thought i want to be her boyfriend. Though my experiences in the city growing up in the city and countyof San Francisco were always verypositive. I came out in high school. I actually ended up being prom king my senior year in high school and a lot of peoplewere very supportive. Myparents were very supportive. They just let me do my thing and my dad knew of a lot of lesbian women in the fire departmentthe time because he was a San Francisco firefighter. For me its very important to be part of a community and organization and an agency that supports my lgbtq status because if youre not yourself, how can you perform to the best of your abilities . Youre always holding back in some way whether its your personality or your abilities or your overall skills and with agency that supports me being a lesbian i can truly be myself. I can be happy. I can be social with other people. It makes me want to work as a team and we all work Better Together when we are happier and we can be ourselves. [music] alright thats why i love doing these things with maliah cohen. State board of equalization here. Happy early womens equality day. My name is
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