Governor Hochul: “He changed my life in many ways. He reminded me of the power and nobility of public service – the purity of it. When it's done right, it changes policies.”
Hochul: “I'm going to stand here and make a prediction that there are students sitting in this audience that…will be spoken about with the same reverence that we're talking about Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Because when they get this foundation, this education, the inspiration of this name on the walls, there will be no stopping them. And I have confidence that our future is going to be just fine.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the Inauguration for the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Center at the City College of New York.
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 of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you, Michael. I've concluded that preparing a speech about Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan is far less stressful than preparing a speech for him, as a former person who wrote speeches. I see some of the alumni. Oh, I've got a lot of stories.
But this is an honor for me – an honor to be in a place as hallowed and as majestic as this. A place that has truly earned the mantle of the Moynihan Center. As I think about the students in this room, I ask myself, and you should be asking yourselves, “Who is the next Daniel Patrick Moynihan among you? Who will be that leader that transforms a nation – a nation in turmoil? Who will be that leader that is a giant among giants? Who is that leader who understands truly the nature of statesmanship?”
Because I lament the fact that this generation has not seen many visible examples of this in our time. Indeed, they've seen the opposite. They've seen assaults on our democracy, something that would have shocked those who served at a time when I was so blessed to be a staffer back in the 1980s.
We didn't know it then. And I preceded Lawrence O'Donnell by just about a year. And you can blame my baby that was born that year because I couldn't keep the long hours, while taking care of an infant, that were required to be successful. But there are so many people like myself influenced, inspired by this man – literally generations.
There's three parts of the Moynihan story, and when you gather to talk about him, at an annual event, for instance his birthday, you get to understand how since the 1970s, this is an individual who, teaming up with his brilliant wife Liz, the strategist – and some say the brains behind him, and I want to give a special shout out to Liz Moynihan for your role also in changing the course of history, Liz.
But in the 1970s, what was I doing? I was this nerdy high school kid who somehow liked politics. I didn't have parents involved. My parents used to live in a trailer park. We didn't know much about politics. But I had a teacher, an eighth grade social studies teacher who taught me about government. And we took a field trip and went down there to see our nation's capital, and my dream at age 13 was someday, someday if I work hard enough, I might be able to be a staffer for a senator someday. That was my entire life's dream.
And when Senator Moynihan hired me at the age of 28 as an attorney on his staff, I was done, folks. I had achieved all my dreams. Now the moral of this story is, dream a little bigger. Push yourselves. But that was the start. It was the start of me learning at the hands of the master – someone who had already established himself. An advisor to Presidents. An ambassador known around the world. An academic. A genius. A prolific writer of books that really shook the conscience of America and challenged us to be better.
When I came to meet him as a staffer, he was already that legend. And I was so humbled that a kid from Buffalo, New York would be able to work with him. But I wasn't the first Buffalo kid he found. We all honor Tim Russert, an individual who I worked with on Senator Moynihan's first campaign in 1976, again that nerdy high school kid, loved politics, took an hour bus ride by myself to downtown Buffalo, put my 50 cents in the driver's hands and said, “I'm going to Buffalo, I'm going to work on a campaign, I'm real important.” I was 16 years old. But I helped him get elected in one sense, I don't think our paths crossed often but I felt I was in the presence of greatness even then.
But when he was elected to be a senator, I never dreamed a few years later, after a few starts doing other things, that I'd actually be able to join him on Capitol Hill. He changed my life in many ways. He reminded me of the power and nobility of public service – the purity of it. When it's done right, it changes policies.
You heard the Congressman, Adriano Espaillat. And I want to acknowledge him today because this would have been the first time you didn't hit me up for money for the 2nd Avenue Subway. You did not disappoint me. You did not disappoint me. I mean I’m listening. He's looking at me, $7 billion dollars. “We can do this, right Governor?” Always a great champion. I thank him. I thank other people who've inspired me.
Charlie Rangel. When I was elected to Congress, in a race I was not supposed to win – everybody said, “She can't win in Upstate New York. It's all Republican up there.” I was from there. I knew how they thought. I knew what was important to them. When I was elected in that unexpected election, I came in and Charlie Rangel was the Dean. And when he embraced me and told me I'm now part of the family, I just realized I had just been a staffer for Senator Moynihan, and now I'm a Member of Congress. I felt the weight of Senator Moynihan on my shoulders because I could not disappoint him, even after he passed.
I knew I must carry on like a true disciple of Senator Moynihan, as many of his staffers were and became. So that's what I feel, the weight of responsibility on my shoulders to live like he did, to challenge the status quo and say, “This is not good enough. This is the greatest country in the world. Why aren't we doing better? Why can't we be changing the outcomes in our cities after all these years of pointing out the challenges back decades and decades ago. Are we getting any better? Are we pushing ourselves? Are we becoming that great nation we always had potential to be?”
You know the questions. Many are still unanswered. But I do know one thing he taught me that I carry today as well – what it's like to collaborate. And he really was a statesman at its finest, but collaboration – what does that look like? Well when I was working in 1986, we had an immigration problem. People coming across the border. Didn't know where they should go. They were not legal. They couldn't work. Sound familiar? Sure does.
Senator Moynihan designated me to work with other Democrats. That's not hard. But to work with Republicans, Republican staffers, House, Senate, Democrat, Republican. Can you imagine this scenario? And the staffers worked long hours. We ate lots of pizza, day after day, into dawn. We were working so hard because in the next room, the senators and the congressmen were counting on us to come up with recommendations and to work with them.
And because of their relationships and their friendships and their respect for others, it was easy for us to do the same. We got it done. That's the last major immigration reform that this country has seen. We can do better. We can be like that once again. We can solve the most seemingly intractable problems because we have people who have gone before us and done the same. We carry on the weight of their stories and their history.
And history will look at us, and our time, and judge us. Do we measure up to people like Senator Moynihan and those who came before? Or do we fall short? Too timid to try? Too timid to challenge? Too timid to push ourselves? I will choose not to be among those timid souls. Senator Moynihan would be disappointed if I were.
But he has had a remarkable life, starting with nothing. When you met him later, you just assumed he came from great wealth and prestige and prominence because look how he behaved. He used to shine shoes in Hell's Kitchen, used to lug around bags of potatoes. And you know what changed his life? This institution changed his life. It gave him a chance to understand what formal education was like, to push himself, to see other people who wanted to make themselves better by showing up in a classroom.
That changed his life. Otherwise, he could have been a longshoreman the rest of his life. Nothing wrong with that. My Irish uncles were longshoremen, too. But they didn't have a breakout. They didn't have the same DNA, perhaps. That sense of adventure, that willingness to take a chance. So that's what I want to leave you with.
Look at the alumni. Look at people like Lawrence O'Donnell who the nation listens to every single night – at least the smart ones do – to find out insights and a different way of looking at things. He learned.
Polly Trottenberg, she is making a profound difference in our nation’s capital. Sorry to lose Polly, but look what she's doing, working with President Biden, bringing billions of dollars of infrastructure money like Senator Moynihan used to do. And bringing it out to communities that have been starved for so long or to have basic services provided, and so many, so many others.
To the leadership of this organization, to Felix Matos Rodriguez, our Chancellor, to Mike Miller, to our Dean, I thank all of you. But I'm going to stand here and make a prediction that there are students sitting in this audience that perhaps 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now will be spoken about with the same reverence that we're talking about Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Because when they get this foundation, this education, the inspiration of this name on the walls, there will be no stopping them. And I have confidence that our future is going to be just fine. We're going to make it. Our country has been tested. I'm not just talking way back to the Civil War. We've been divided before. But to those who say, “It's never been as bad as this. We're never going to recover.” Young people, don't be like that. Have a sense of optimism in your heart and souls. We're counting on you to have that belief.
When I was a young kid, we had 1968. Look it up. It was a really rough year. Dr. King was assassinated, and I, as a kid, had written book reports about him. I knew who he was. Bobby Kennedy assassinated. Riots for the Democratic Convention. I went to see Washington with my family over Easter break. Washington was on fire. A President resigns in disgrace, Watergate. Kids are killed on a college campus for protesting the war, Kent State.
Those are the images that are seared in my mind as well as our country being divided over the Vietnam War and I had uncles serving there. If anyone was going to be depressed about the future, it would have been someone who lived those scary years.
But never bet against America. We always come back. And it's not just because of the institutions, it's because of the people who fill the seats in those institutions. People like Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Don't forget the power of one individual to affect global change. Change in our country, change in our culture, change in society, and ultimately, hopefully change in our hearts as we become the country that we always had potential to be.
Thank you, my friends. Thank you for the privilege of being able to honor someone who has touched my life. And I'll always be grateful for the experience of having worked with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Thank you.