Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Presides Over and Delivers Remarks at Annual Medal Day Ceremony with FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a privilege to welcome you this morning to City Hall as we honor the courage and the commitment of FDNY members. We are here together today to recognize the heroism of men and women being honored today, those whose service and whose sacrifice have made such immense contributions to our city. As we do so, I want to pause to acknowledge all those who make their work possible, many of whom are here with us today. The family members, the friends, those whose steadfast love and support provide the foundation for their courage. Can we please have a round of applause for the incredible family and friends? I also want to thank our fire commissioner, Lillian Bonsignore, as well as our chief of department, John Esposito, for your dedicated leadership of the FDNY. Every morning across our city, New Yorkers wake up and go to work. They have a cup of coffee, they pack their bag [and] they say goodbye to their loved ones at the door. They set about their days safe in the knowledge that if something goes wrong, there are people across our city whose daily purpose it is to protect them, to put out fires, to heal them if injured. Every morning, across our city, FDNY members wake up and go to work too. Except for you, a day at work means running into the fire so that others can run away. It means choosing to save, to serve in the face of danger. It means arriving at the scene of an emergency and putting your city before yourself. Thanks to your bravery, there are New Yorkers this evening who are sitting down to dinner with their families. Children whose parents are around to play with them. New Yorkers, who we otherwise would have lost. I know I look out on a collection of New Yorkers who shrug off that kind of praise with humility. And I know that when you are putting out a fire or loading someone into the back of an ambulance, glory is far from your mind. "I was just doing my job" could very well be the unofficial slogan of the FDNY. And yet you do your jobs because you love your city, because you have dedicated your lives to making New Yorkers safer each and every day in ways often unrecognized. Today gives us the opportunity for something different. It offers us an opportunity to recognize your work, to recognize the ways in which you have served our city. Over the next few hours, we will hear the stories of 50 extraordinary medals, stories that illustrate what it really means to heed the call of a life of sacrifice and a life of service. We will also have the privilege of witnessing a number of firsts in FDNY history, including the first medal honoring the Special Investigations Unit for Fire Prevention, the first medal honoring our fire alarm dispatchers and the first time ever in New York City history that a father and a son will receive FDNY medals on the same day. Today's medals represent far more than much-deserved recognition. They are a testament to the bond between this department and the people that this department protects every day. They are the symbol of 8.5 million New Yorkers' gratitude. So, on behalf of every New Yorker, those whose homes you've saved, whose families you've kept whole, and those who sleep soundly at night, knowing that if they ever needed you, you'd be there. Thank you, and congratulations.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Presides Over and Delivers Remarks at Annual Medal Day Ceremony with FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.