He has been here many times, president obama. The very surprised we had of being able to celebrate the first asian mayor of San Francisco. It was not my doing, it was all of the people of San Francisco saying it is about time we celebrate. Thank you to the people of san [applause] i have a very short message. What did i have felt very strongly in my first elected year, but also during my tenure as interim mayor. We have a great deal of celebrate. We also have a great challenge in front of us. There are so many of our Asian American friends, iranian friends, friends from the philippines, friends from our japaneseamerican community, are chineseamerican community, waiting for the opportunity to come together to celebrate our diversity, but also to signal to our european friends, our latino france, we are ready to help lead this state. And helped change the conversation and not only celebrate diversity, but use diversity for our strength. That is our strength. I want to signal to you, lets
He just told me i had five minutes. What do you think of this program . [applause] it is about time. I want to thank francis and fong. I think this is the very first statewide heritage month held with the mayor of San Francisco. Let me Say Something about heritage month in San Francisco and your mayor. In the old days, you remember San Francisco was known for passing all of these anti chinese ordinances to limit the movement, the productivity of chinese in the city. We know two things. Change happens. Maybe the state of california is the state of golden opportunities, where we have a chineseamerican mayor of San Francisco. 35 years ago, Congress Members passed similar resolutions in both house and the senate to formally recognize the first 10 days of may as asianpacific heritage week. One year later, president jimmy carter signed into law a joint resolution to officially designate the annual celebration. 11 years later, president george bush extended the weeklong celebration to an enti
If you look around you tonight, you will see poster board. Celebrating, acknowledging, the first Asian Americans. We have the first asianamerican actress in hollywood. The first asianamerican nba player. The first members of congress. These interns are the future of our community. They are the reason why we are here today. Were also here to celebrate and recognize one of the greatest members of our community. This year it is the first year we are giving the Lifetime Achievement award. The Lifetime Achievement award this year is going to secretary norman manetta. He is a trailblazer. A man who paved the way for many of us. He was the first asianamerican mayor of a major city. He was elected to congress 10 times. He was the first person to serve two president s in a cabinet. First as secretary of commerce to president clinton, secretary of transportation to president bush. It was on 9 11 that secretary mineta showed us what he was made of. He made the call to ground all of the planes. It
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. One more round of applause. [applause] if you look around you tonight, you will see poster board. Celebrating, acknowledging, the first Asian Americans. We have the first asianamerican actress in hollywood. The first asianamerican nba player. The first members of congress. These interns are the future of our community. They are the reason why we are here today. Were also here to celebrate and recognize one of the greatest members of our community. This year it is the first year we are giving the Lifetime Achievement award. The Lifetime Achievement award this year is going to secretary norman manetta. He is a trailblazer. A man who paved the way for many of us. He was the first asianamerican mayor of a major city. He was elected to congress 10 times. He was the first person to serve two president s in a cabinet. First as secretary of commerce to president clinton, secretary of transportation to president bush. It was on 9 11 that secretary mine
Milestones the api has made in the state of california and in the entire country. The caucus has a record of 42 members in the asian caucus in congress. One of their very first things we want to say is it was a young man who was the first member we want to make note of that. The reestablishment of the White House Initiative by president obama was another accomplishment. President obamas cabinets has dr. Steven chu. The very first asianamerican as ambassador to the republic of china. We have a lot of accomplishments. It was not that accident, my friends. Everyone of you know that you work hard. All these things are done on purpose. I want to let you know that we also can boast twice as many asianamericans on federal benches. Those of us to understand the impact of the Supreme Court and what it can do or on june, we know that having asianamericans on the federal bench is a line up for appointments to the Supreme Court. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I want to say that Silicon