Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Christian Cultural Center

December 5, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Grace and peace, CCC. Good morning, everyone. First, I want to give honor to God. Without Him, this day would not be possible. 

[Applause] 

When I come here, I truly feel not just an energy, but a hope and a joy. And what has been created over years and years at CCC, there’s very, very few things I can think of in life that compare. Something happens here every time you enter into this sanctuary. We've been here in times of pain, including just weeks ago. But we also have been able to be here in times of joy. And this is a place that keeps us going. You ever feel that? When you come here, it allows you to keep going. It allows you to believe. It allows you to see something better up ahead.  

[Applause] 

So much of that is because of the vision of a truly, truly great man. And he has poured his love, his heart, all his abilities into creating this for every one of you. And, by the way, for this whole city. Pastor A.R. Bernard is irreplaceable in the City of New York – irreplaceable. 

[Applause] 

I represent 8.8 million people – as I like to say, 8.8 million, highly opinionated people. Can I get an amen?  

Audience: Amen – 

Mayor: People have strong attitudes in our town. But one thing that I have seen, literally, across the board is the respect for Pastor Bernard. And I'm not just talking about in one community or another. I'm talking about across communities, across faiths. And he has been one of the preeminent faith leaders in this city, helping to hold us together, even in our most difficult times. COVID was an unimaginable crisis. We all lived it. To get through something like that, you need people who truly are your rock. So, for everything he's done for every one of you, for everything he's done for this extraordinary place, but, most importantly, what he has done for our larger community, the love he has created and the hope he has sustained, please join me in thanking Pastor Bernard. 

[Applause] 

Mayor: You can be louder than that. 

[Cheers] 

I love him too.  

[Laughter] 

I'll be very brief, but I want to say a profound thank you. And this is personal for me and Chirlane, and Chiara, and Dante. I want to say, thank you, that because of you – literally, because of you, CCC was one of the places we felt the most love, the most support. Because of you, these eight years, we've tried with everything in our heart to make a change in the city. But also, because of you, we felt there was always support. There was always some wind beneath our wings. And I’ve got to tell you that because of the power of this place, I think you can recognize the fallacy in our society, the contradiction that runs through it all the time, which is that we are all every day bombarded with messages of what's wrong with us, why we are less than, or what we can't do, what we shouldn't do. Has anyone ever experienced that? Raise your hand if you've ever felt that from the media, from society around you. We are told what we cannot do. And I certainly experienced that in many ways in my own family's life and my own upbringing, but I also experienced the idea of offering a different vision and then being told that was outrageous and unacceptable.  

You may remember eight years ago, the raging debate over what I fundamentally believe was a broken and unconstitutional policy of stop and frisk, degrading our young people, holding them back. The conventional wisdom was if you changed that policy, there'd be crime and disorder. That was a lie. That was a lie. We were told. Well, if you want safety, you have to give up some of your rights and some of your dignity. And we didn't believe that. The majority didn't believe that. We were told what we couldn't do, but, in fact, when we tried to do something different, it proved to be the right path.  

So, very simply, I will say, I've had that pattern repeated over and over again. I said, why don't we have pre-K for every single child? I was told it was outrageous and impossible. Guess what? Thanks to you – thanks to you – literally, thanks to you, every child in New York City gets pre-K for free today. It happened. And now, we're doing the same thing for three-year-olds. And we were told when I put forward a plan – 200,000 affordable apartments for people in need in the city – I was told that's too high. That's never going to happen. Guess what? It has happened. When I said $25 billion should go to minority- and women-owned businesses – $25 billion in government contracts should be our goal, I was told that was too high, that was impossible. Guess what? We're going to meet that goal. $25 billion to the community.  

[Applause] 

And something so poignant that we all understand and we all are finally talking about. When my wife, Chirlane, said, we've got to break this stigma of mental health once and for all. We’ve got to stop treating mental health as something we can't talk about. We've got to stop acting like it's a character flaw if you have a human problem and a human challenge. And Chirlane had the audacity to say, in this city we are going to break the stigma and provide mental health support for all. And it's happening now in New York City. It's happening. 

[Applause] 

The common link throughout – two things. One, these changes happen because of you, because you demanded and you believed. And the second is, every time you're told what you cannot do, what you should not do, what you can't reach for, what you're not good enough to do, what is impossible – every time you're told it's impossible, that confirms it is possible. Whether that's in your personal life or whether that's how we change our city and our society.  

So, I'll leave you with this – profound thanks – deep, personal thanks for allowing me to go on this journey with you. For being indispensable, because it would not have existed. If you weren't there, it could not have been. And now, I will tell you that, at the end eight years – and Pastor and I had a chance to spend some personal time together, which is always, for me, one of the high points when I get that time to really recharge, and think, and be in his presence, and hear his advice – and I said to him, from my heart, I actually feel more optimistic today than I did eight years ago. And that's after COVID and everything else, because I've seen what could be. And I'll tell you what I want to do next. I want to help our children. I want to go farther in this city, in this state. Here's what I think we should do. I think every parent, every family member out there, you should know that your child can stay in school until the time you actually end work. You should have the right for your child to be in school until 6:00 PM for free, safe, learning, growing, supported. That should be a right in a good and decent society. And in summer, you should know – if you want your child in the summer to go to their neighborhood school, and have field trips, and arts, and recreation, and learning all summer long, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., it should be there for you. It should be free. It should be guaranteed. Every family deserves that. Think of what that will do to uplift our children.  

[Applause] 

And if you're hearing that and you're thinking, well, that sounds like a bit of overreach – that's what they said about Pre-K for All. But we did it together, didn't we? We did it together. I want you to feel that we did it together. If you like it, then thank yourself, because you made it happen. You made it happen. You made it happen. 

[Applause] 

I leave you just with a sense of gratitude. It's a season of reflection and a season of gratitude. I feel in my core the goodness of the people. Look around you for a moment. Look around you and you see everything good not just about this church, but about this city, about this nation. Look around you and remember, it's not the divisions. It's not the angry voices. It's the good hearts of the people that will sustain us. Look around you and feel the hope I feel right now as I look at this extraordinary congregation. I leave you today seeing better, better times ahead because of you. Thank you and God bless you all. 

[Applause] 

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