Council Swearing-In
I had the honor of addressing those gathered, COVID-19 style, for the swearing-in ceremony for the four new and eight returning Council Members. Here are my remarks.
Greetings and a warm welcome to everyone. Thanks for joining us, whether in person or watching remotely to accommodate COVID-19. Just saying that reminds us, as if we needed any reminder, that we are living in a very strange and trying time.
A special welcome to the proud families of the twelve council members being sworn in today. Please know how important your support for them has been and will continue to be.
Before I proceed with my remarks, let me read to you a message to the incoming council members from Mayor Gorton, who regrets that she cannot be with us today:
“Congratulations!! This is a moment of excitement, anticipation, and challenge as you work to serve your districts through this most historic time, a global pandemic. Along with our citizens, I value your dedication to the greater good, and anticipate these next two years as we move forward together. Welcome aboard!! ”
Every two years since I became Vice Mayor I have had the privilege and honor of making a few remarks at these special occasions. Looking back, I realize that my remarks every time have differed in content but really have consisted of two parts: one part is celebration, one part is challenge. Though COVID-19 changes many things, it does not change that we have much to celebrate, and that we have challenges facing us.
From a national perspective we celebrate our wonderful system of democracy, whose power and promise are reinforced by transitions in leadership such as the one we are witnessing today. From a more local perspective we celebrate our good fortune to live in one of America’s great cities, blessed with outstanding human and natural resources since its founding at McConnell Springs in 1775; blessed also with a long history of wise decisions about the best use of those resources in building a strong and sustainable community. I gave some thought to listing a few of those wise decisions, but then I worried that we might not agree on which ones were wise and which ones were…not so wise. The ability to disagree: one feature of our democracy we sometimes forget to celebrate. But to leave history aside and come to the present, we are gathered today to celebrate the swearing in of these twelve council members, to congratulate them and to celebrate the honor that follows all the hard work that goes into an election campaign. We celebrate that each of them is ready, willing, and able to contribute to that long history of wise decisions with which we have been blessed.
As for the challenges, we do not get to choose the times in which we live, and we do not get to choose the challenges those times present. Our job, as always, is to make the best of the times we are given and to treat those challenges as opportunities as much as possible. COVID-19 has made some of our ongoing challenges both more clear and more formidable. We are optimistic that we will soon be through the worst of this pandemic. We will address the damage that has been done and do our best to move forward.
COVID-19 has also made more clear to us the ways in which we depend on our workforce to maintain the basics required for our daily life. So let us take a moment to recognize all of the people, in LFUCG, in our community, and around the world, who have continued to do their daily work despite the risks that work might entail. We are all indebted to them.
In closing, a few words to my colleagues—the eight returning and the four new council members—about what happens next in this program. All of you are going to swear a solemn oath. One part of that oath says something about dueling, but that is not terribly relevant nowadays. What is important, what is at the heart of that oath, are these words:
…I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth… and … I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of council member according to law…
Taking that solemn oath and repeating those words binds you to all who have preceded you and to all who will follow. I look forward to working with all of you to fulfill that oath.
Congratulations again to our council members, and thanks again to all of you who have joined us today.