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Remarks to the World Economic Forum

January 31, 2002

(AS PREPARED)

Distinguished guests, friends, and members of the World Economic Forum, good afternoon.
Never before has this summit been held anywhere except in Davos. By coming here, you have done something unprecedented.

You have made a profound statement.

And you have made it in person.

So I am here, simply and briefly, to give the thanks of the people of New York City to Klaus Schwab, Kaspar Villiger, and all of you. We thank every one of you for this extraordinary statement of solidarity.

Today, New York is hosting thirty heads of state or governments. More than 100 Cabinet Ministers. Seventy-four ambassadors. One hundred and twenty heads of NGOs. Forty union leaders, as well as leaders from universities, the media and representatives of the world's great religions. All in our city of 8 million people, with 9 million points of view. And all of them want to be heard (and some of them outside have even dressed up for the occasion).

In other words, just a typical day in New York City . . .

Of course, in the bleak month after September 11th, the typical day meant something else.

That is why this summit is so meaningful. You have shown the world how quickly this town has returned to some form of normalcy-(I have to tell you, in light of everything, I prefer the blaring taxi horns over the church bells in Switzerland.)

New York City is open for business, and nothing is going to change that.

Of course, I think anyone who comes back here for the first time after September 11th has to take a moment to look at our altered skyline. So take that moment. Have your moment of silence. And when you're done, take a new look around this city. Our skyline has changed, but our belief in the future of New York City is-not-shaken . . .

Last fall was a time of grieving. This is a time of renewal and recovery.

You can see it in the store windows of Fifth Avenue. You can see it in the corner markets and vendor stalls along Houston Street.

You can feel it in the pace of office workers and the bright lights of Times Square. You can see it all along Broadway.

And you can even see the rebirth of New York at Ground Zero, where labor and business have come together to support the round-the-clock efforts of our workers. Those recovery and construction workers still toil day and night. Their work has proceeded far faster than anyone expected, under budget and ahead of schedule. When was the last time you heard a mayor make that proclamation?

There have been so many miracles. David Letterman told a story the first night he was back on the air after the attack. He told of a farm town in the American Midwest, one that is not doing so well, where the townspeople held a fundraiser for New York . . .

So there's another miracle in our time-people around the world have affection, rather than envy, for New Yorkers!

If I sound proud of my city, I am. But I did not come here to subject you to boosterism and cheerleading. I came here for the same reason you did. We all know that when New York was hit, it wasn't just an attack on one major city.

It was an attack on the kind of world we all want for the 21st Century. A world where ideas are interchangeable. Where freedoms are available to all. Where science helps improve and extend lives.

This attack occurred because New York is a proud commercial capital, not just of America, but of the global economy and partnership of civilized nations.

It happened because of who we are. No city in America, perhaps in the world, has been more eager to embrace the newcomer, the immigrant, the visitor. This city is at the center of world dialogue. At the center of the daily transaction of the world's business. To the hateful and the narrow-minded, that dialogue is very threatening.

New York was about globalization long before we knew the word. For more than a century, the torch held high by the Statue of Liberty has been a beacon of freedom. The best and the brightest of the world have been drawn by that vision. That is true whether you choose to live here, study here, or do business here.

That is why when you go to Mulberry Street, you will find yourself in Italy. That is why a few blocks over, you find yourself in China. Go to parts of Brooklyn, and you can walk from Russia to the Ukraine. Go around the boroughs, and you can take the subway from Latin America, to West Africa, to Poland.

In the 1940's, the United Nations did not stay in San Francisco. I have nothing against that jewel of a city. But the UN moved here because when the world wants to get together, the world wants to come here. If New York City were a stand-alone economy, we would be the 10th largest in the world, exporter of $89 billion in goods and services, importer of $119 billion in goods and services from every member of this Forum.

Many cities have something they call a world trade center. But only one place was known by that name throughout the world.

Almost three thousand people died in the World Trade Center on that day in September. Among the dead were 400 New York City firefighters, police officers and emergency service workers who rushed in to save others. They died to save our friends, family and colleagues and we will never forget them.

As mayor, I have to account not just for them, but for losses for families around the world. In all, people in 26 countries grieve over loved ones lost in the World Trade Center attacks. People from Japan, Mexico, China, India, Turkey, Britain and Pakistan. And so many more.

Your solidarity in New York today supports the idea that we are not meant to live or work apart as strangers. Your presence here disproves the belief that different civilizations must be enemies.

By coming here, you are supporting the kind of world we all want to build. Many of you are curious about how we plan to keep faith with the heroism of September 11th . You wonder how we will do this while keeping rebuilding a city which has been so tested.

About a century ago, in a safer time, a writer made a famous complaint that New York City's present is so powerful that the past is lost. I don't buy that, and I don't think anyone would today.

The soul of this place lives on.
You can build over it.
You can build above it.
But you cannot obliterate our past. There are echoes of Washington's Inaugural Address on Wall Street. Other sounds continue to reverberate. In Yankee Stadium, the crack of Babe Ruth's bat. At the UN, Dag Hammarskjold's pleas for peace.

The past is always with us.

And let me tell you one more thing--the site of the World Trade Center will, in some form, live on at the vibrant heart of New York . . .

I cannot tell you what it will look like. I cannot tell you exactly how we will balance a memorial with the need for an economically strong urban center.

I can only tell you that when you do look at it, you will know what this place means to the world. And you will know what our link to the world means to us.

You will see something gleaming.
You will see something that reaches deep into the sky and touches our hearts.
You will see the soul of New York.

Thank you.