Governor Hochul: "We are tough as nails and people have put us down our entire lives. They underestimate us, but we are strong. We are Buffalo strong, and we'll show the world how we take this moment of despair and with the presence of God, we rise up and we lead by our example going forth here today."
Earlier this evening, Governor Kathy Hochul attended the Interfaith Service of Prayer and Lament at Macedonia Baptist Church in Buffalo and delivered remarks.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr account here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Macedonia Baptist, I thank you for forever being associated with the beginning of the healing process. You opened your doors, your hearts, your pews, to people from all over this community. People from all religions and all colors, and you stood together and brought us the most beautiful music that I thought came right from God in the heavens.
I want to thank all of you for giving us a message that just touched my heart so deeply. You heard the song for every moment I give you praise, even in a moment when we're witnessing the very worst of humanity, that was yesterday. Today gathered here, we witnessed the very best of humanity. That is what's unfolding before our eyes, the very best of humanity.
And yes, God is in our presence. And I know because Psalm 34 tells us that God is near the brokenhearted and we are, if anything, brokenhearted right now. Our hearts are ripped into in two in this city that I love and call my home. One part of our heart is grieving for the families who are still in disbelief that their 86-year-old grandma is not coming home or the dad who was there just buying cupcakes for his son's birthday at the checkout counter is not coming home for that birthday party, and countless other lives that are taken from us so senselessly. That's the part of the heart that's broken and wounded for them.
Then there's the other broken half of our hearts that is filling with anger, but God, let that anger not be a force of destruction and vengeance, let it be a force of empowerment when we say from this day forward, we say no more. Because we heard the Rabbi lists all those cities that none of us ever wanted to be associated with because of violence, because we are a great community. We are a caring community. We are, as the Pastor said, we are one Buffalo still, and that's not referring to sports teams, that's who we are. We are one Buffalo.
I also want to say, with respect to being listed with all those other cities, let our city, let Buffalo, New York, be the last city where acts of violence like this ever occur. We will be at the end of that list and not let that list continue ever again. Let it stop here in Buffalo, New York.
That is our call to action. And I'm calling out the social media platforms where this hate can be spewed and people are learning how to create guns and violence and weapons, and the dissemination, this virus, called white supremacy, white supremacy and nationalism, and this idea of replacement theory. Have you heard of this? Well, if you're watching Fox News, you're familiar with it because they talk about it all the time. What they say is part of stirring up this anger in people and putting us against them. The "them," the immigrants, the Jews, the Blacks are coming after "us," the white people in this country, and they're trying to stir us all up. But I'm sorry, there's more of us than you, people who believe that God loves all of us. We are all children of God, and we have a right to live in security and safety.
And my God, there are far too many guns on our streets. You can have that hatred and sit in your house and foment and be an evil person, okay, stay in your basement. But when you have access to a gun, and were able to go over to Pennsylvania and buy a magazine that has capacity to slaughter countless individuals, as happened here in my beloved hometown, then we have to do more as a nation to stop the spread of these weapons of mass destruction, because that's what we have on our streets.
We're not in a war abroad, this is not Afghanistan, this is not far away countries, this is not Ukraine where they're defending their lives. This is the United States of America. We don't need those weapons in our streets and in our hands. So yes, Julian Cook, Reverend Julian Cook, you said, this is a moment of call to action. Oh, yes, I am fired up. You can tell, I am fired up. I'm going to mend our broken hearts this day forward and we will go forth. And don't underestimate the people of Buffalo, because I talk about Buffalo all the time. They're tired of this everywhere else, but I say you don't know us because we are tough as nails and people have put us down our entire lives. They underestimate us, but we are strong. We are Buffalo strong, and we'll show the world how we take this moment of despair and with the presence of God, we rise up and we lead by our example going forth here today. So, thank you, fellow Buffalonians for inspiring me to march on and work to ensure that it ends right here and now. Thank you very much.
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