Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks At Flag-Raising Ceremony For Italy

June 2, 2023

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/live/oezb9zVt4Zw?feature=share

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much to just who has become a real friend, an amazing consul general, and how he represents the community in a level of just humility, but strength and courage. As was indicated, the Italian-American community really personifies what I believe is the spirit of America. You could love your motherland and love your adopted land of America. That is what makes us special and we see it every day. Your benevolence does not stay within the boundaries of the community. It actually goes beyond your community and helping others who are in need.

It's a real indicator of the contribution that you see throughout this entire city and country. The contribution of Italian-Americans from the areas of law enforcement to infrastructure development, to song, to music, to dance, to food. And clearly, brother Arturo thought of me when he decided to do his art because I'm just like that bull. I am not going to stop and be bullish on protecting our city and our country.

We embrace the same things. We believe in family, we believe in business, we believe in our faith, and we believe in public safety, and so there's a common ground. One of the most difficult and painful moments came for me when I was a child and my mother shared with me, "Eric, you are not Italian. You do not come from the southern part of Italy." But we will continue to lift up this community and I'm so proud to raise the flag and what the republic means to all of us as we continue to show the diversity. We raised so many flags here at Bowling Green and it shows the power of our diversity and the power of our strength, the power of this American experience, of bringing together the various cultures to show that we produce one of the best products that mankind has ever known.

And that is what makes us great. So, I want to call up Arturo's representatives as we give this proclamation today. It stands proudly in Brooklyn, this important bull here at Bowling Green. So many people come here and line up to take photos. It is a symbol of hope and universal optimism, continues to resonate with all who see it to this day. His story, Arturo's story, is one of our city's most quintessential narratives of immigration filled with love for both countries and a wealth of success and joy in our multicultural, multifaceted melting pot.

At today's ceremony in Manhattan, historic Bowling Green Park, Italian New Yorkers will commemorate the establishment of their mother country as a republic by raising its green, white, and red flag. I look forward to the many ways everyone gathered will further invigorate New York as we unite to rebuild, renew, and reinvent our global city. Eric Adams, mayor of the City of New York, thank you so much.