Good morning, everyone.

My name is Sam Gomez.

I'm the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the city of New York Show.

So on behalf of the city, I would like to welcome you.

So 250 years, what does it mean for us?

I think, especially in days like this, I think it means everyone here at this table and the equality and the diversity.

And the words of our forefathers when he said equality for all, and it means for all of us, right?

Seeing this group of people here, all celebrating the same thing, celebration this country that has made us all who we are today.

I'm an immigrant from Peru.

I moved here when I was 13.

Um because of this country, I am standing here in front of you today.

And I think that's basically the promise of our forefathers, right?

Being able to work hard, being able to be free, being able to make something of yourselves.

So for that I am thankful, and I am thankful for all of you here, and that we are celebrating this anniversary together.

Thank you.

I would like to introduce uh a mayor dear Ramos Herbert.

Thank you, Sam, and thank you everyone for taking the time to be here today.

Um I'm a history major, that's what I studied in undergrad, and I I'm a junkie for all of the shows and all of the books.

And this year, there's been a lot of like documentary, and I'm like nerding out in a very typical fashion, and my kids similarly typically are making fun of me for watching all like another history show, mom.

That's amazing, so much as you know.

But recently, my kids, you know, I was telling them how much I I was really excited about the Fourth of July.

And I'm just reading, I was I said that the Pledge of Allegiance actually is one of my favorite things to hear, read, and recite.

And I think I must have like entered another level of nerd them to my children.

They're like, why?

Why?

And in particular, mom, like, how do you balance racism?

Or like being a woman, I don't think they use the word misogyny, but sort of implied that.

Like, how do you balance that?

And you're still so proud.

And I said to him, it's it can be complicated.

I'm not pretending it's not complicated, but love doesn't mean just loving the perfection.

Love means recognizing where there is growth.

And so I said to them, your grandparents didn't go past the third grade, and your mom is the mayor.

I can honor this country for that opportunity.

On her dad's side, they are the descendant of slaves in this country.

Her grandparents went to segregated schools well after Brown v.

Bord of Ed in Maryland.

And my children get to go to school in this amazing district.

So I said to her, for me, when I hear the pledge, when I read it, when I read the declaration, when I see the struggle, I take it as the opportunity to honor the potential, but to fight for the equity, to fight for the equality, and to bring more of us to the table.

I don't see it as a reason to not love.

In fact, it makes me love even more.

And so I don't take it lightly that I get to stand here as the mayor.

I really don't.

We're here now, we keep fighting, and we make it better for our kids and for our future.

And so I really again appreciate everyone being here, taking the time to celebrate, because we can still celebrate and acknowledge the gaps.

We can still celebrate and feel empowered to fight forward.

We can live in that duality.

And I think when we take the time to recognize our history, we sort of take that charge and move it forward.

Um, before I pass before I move on, I forgot the elected roles part.

So I want to make sure I acknowledge the elected in the room.

We have assembly member Steve Otis with us.

I have my counselor colleague Marta Lopez here.

And on the library board, Fela Cortez.

Very quickly, and a lot of other awesome people, because you're all great if you're here today.

Thank you so much.

Okay, before we continue, on your pro on the program that we gave you, there's a QR code so you could scan and follow the pro along the with the program.

And now I would like to introduce our city manager Wilfredo Melendez.

Thanks.

Good morning, everybody.

Thanks for coming out today.

What a what a special day, special celebration.

Umks to the Newer Shell America 250 committee for putting this all together.

It's a lot of work.

We have the opportunity today, a special opportunity today to hear the words of the Declaration of Independence.

It's an important document.

As far as a nation goes, we're only, as nations go, we're only 250 years old, which is which is kind of young, but when you think about what has been accomplished in 250 years, it's pretty amazing as a nation.

And we only do that because we are a community.

So, you know, while we listen to these words today in these readings, I hope they can inspire us, right?

And really looked forward to what's ahead in the next 250 years.

You know, they are, when you look at it, daily reminders of what our community strives for.

In many ways, local government and what we do every day exists because we protect these rights.

We ensure our neighborhoods are safe, we're free, and places where individuals have the opportunity to thrive.

So that really inspires us as local leaders.

So thank you for coming out today as we celebrate this.

Um it truly unites us, and it's great to hear that you know our communities here that you took the time out today for this important occasion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now will I introduce Barbara Davis.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, I'm the city historian, and in that capacity, I need to give you a little history today.

Some of you might be thinking, why are we reading the Declaration of Independence on July 11th?

Most everybody else was paying attention to the declaration on July 4th.

Well, I'm here to tell you why.

So the words of the Declaration of Independence were approved by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776.

The written document was officially adopted on July 4, 1776.

It was not unanimous.

Just 12 of the 13 colonies were listed on the document.

New York was the missing colony.

While the nation's birth certificate, as we can refer to it as, was coming into being in Philadelphia by the Continental Congress, high drama was occurring just 50 miles from here in New York Harbor.

It was the assembling of the most formidable force yet used by any European power outside of Europe.

On July 2nd, historian Wilbur Abbott wrote, they were in the harbor.

And even while the Declaration of Independence was being adopted, the Army, which was designed to make independence impossible, was being disembarked on Staten Island.

It was enough to give the hardiest Patriot pause.

Such was the great argument presented by the British government against a hasty decision by New York in favor of independence.

So after that, it took John Jay, who actually went to school in New Rochelle, grew up in Rye, uh took John Jay a few days to round up the necessary delegates from New York to reach critical consensus.

On the afternoon of July 9th, 1776, at the courthouse, located in White Plains, about where the former armory was on Broadway, the representatives of what would thence forward be referred to as the state of New York, it was born that day, resolved unanimously, quote, that the reasons assigned by the Continental Congress for declaring the United Colonies free and independent states are cogent and conclusive.

And while we lament the cruel necessity which has rendered the measure um unavoidable, we approve the same and will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with the other colonies in supporting it.

They also resolved that the Declaration of Independence be published to the beat of a drum.

We have a DJ in White Plains and throughout the state of New York, first time it was called that.

250 years ago today, on July 11th, the Declaration of Independence was read on those very steps of the White Plains Courthouse.

Now you can see the very paper we believe was read from that day.

One of five Holt Broadsides as they're referred to in a very important and very expensive case.

That wasn't the final declaration.

The final declaration was printed on August 1777, and that declaration begins the unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara.

I'm Catherine White, Executive Director of the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, and thank you all for coming today for this important reading.

As Barbara said, we will be reading excerpts from the Declaration of Independence.

So to begin, I would like to welcome Dr.

Betty Campbell.

Dr.

Campbell is a lifelong resident of New Rochelle.

She's a member of the New Rochelle African American Advisory Committee and Commissioner of Jurors for Westchester County.

She'll be reading the first paragraph or the preamble and the globally acclaimed first sentence of the second paragraph, the basis of our freedoms.

Dr.

Campbell.

Good morning.

The unanimous declaration of the 13th United States of America.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political ban which has connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the law of nature and of the nature of God entitles them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impels them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thank you, Dr.

Campbell.

So now that key last sentence that the doctor read.

It is the basis of our freedoms.

And these freedoms promised in the Declaration apply to all.

So here in New Rochelle, they reflect our cultural diversity.

We have several New Rochelle residents who will read that sentence again in their native languages.

Now I would ask for the speakers to please remain seated simply for microphone purposes, so your best amplified across.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Madalipachi, and I'm a born in Italy, and I'll be reading in Italian.

My name is Ulrich, and I'm reading from the first translation of the Declaration, which was in German.

Hi, my name is Zara J.

Lawyer.

I'm from Iran, and I'm reading the same paragraph in Farsi.

Mobin Bobar Dorim Kahame and Sonha Baro Baro Farid Shodan.

And good morning.

My name is Valerie Cadet Simkins.

I'm the proud daughter of Haitian immigrants to this country, and I'll be reading in Haitian Creole.

Thank you again.

Speaker.

And now we have some abridged readings from the Declaration of Independence by local students, beginning with Fernando Cortez, middle school student, and then high school students Brooke Lancer, Nor Abdala, and Kabir Balia.

Please come up.

Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light transient causes.

Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly, all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

I'm Brooke Lancer.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.

The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object to the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.

To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Um hi, I'm Kabir.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he is utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

Good morning.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation, for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury, for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for address in the most humble terms.

Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare.

And that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.

We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Thank you.

That was amazing.

I have goosebumps.

Thank you, students, you did a great job.

Okay, so as we're thinking about the declaration, and we've seen that it can be read in many different languages, it also produces many different thoughts in various cultures.

So now we will hear various readings that reflect upon the liberty promised in the Declaration.

We'll begin with the reading by Frederick Douglass.

What to the slave is the Fourth of July?

Our readers will be Judith Henry, retired educator from Ward Elementary School, first vice president of the NAACP in New Rochelle, a member of Wasabi and W L H CSS, accompanied by Dr.

Alprentice McCutcheon, New Rochelle High School Social Studies teacher.

Please come up.

By Frederick Douglass, written July 5th, 1852.

This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July.

It is the birthday of your national independence and of your political freedom.

Fellow citizens, I shall not presume to dwell on the length of the association that cluster about this day.

The simple story is the simple story of it is that 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects.

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

Your father were wise men, and they did not go mad.

They became restive under this treatment.

With brave men, they're always a remedy for oppression.

They succeeded, and today you reap the fruits of their success.

The freedom gained is yours, and you therefore may properly celebrate this anniversary.

Fellow citizens, pardon me.

Allow me to ask why am I called upon to speak here today?

What have I or those I represent to do with you with your national independence?

Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in the Declaration of Independence extended to us?

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary.

Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.

The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common.

The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.

The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me.

This 4th of July is yours, not mine.

You may rejoice, I must mourn.

Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy are here the mournful wails of millions.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument is needed.

Oh, had I the ability, and I could reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

For it is not light that is needed but fire.

It is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

What to the word to the American slave is your Fourth of July?

I answer a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham.

Boast liberty and unholy license.

Your national greatness swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing and empty heartless, your denunciations of tyrants, brass front and impudence, your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns and sermon, your sermons with thanksgiving, with all your religious parade and somebody, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy.

I therefore leave off where I began with hope, while drawing the encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains in the genius of the American institutions.

My spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.

Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago.

No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old paths of its fathers without interference.

Long established customs of hurtful character could formally fence themselves in and do their evil work with social impunity.

Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few.

And the multitude walked on them in mental darkness.

But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.

Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Judith Henry and Dr.

Alprey's McCutcheon.

That was a very passionate reading and something we should all really consider.

And the hope that Frederick Douglass inspired at the end of his speech definitely needs to be pulled forward into our life in our city today.

Thank you so much for that.

Give him another round of applause.

And now we'll have a reading by Elizabeth Caddy Stanton on the Declaration of Sentiments from 1848.

Our readers will be Barbara Crane, vice president of the Thomas Paine Historical Society and member of the New Rochelle Rotary, and Felia Cortez.

She is a New Rochelle Library Board Trustee, Philadez.

Both come up.

Hello, everyone.

I just have to add that this document came out of the women's rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848.

And it was a convention that was organized by women, but also they were also abolitionists, and Frederick Douglass was there.

And also there, and speaking before this document was presented, was Lucretia Mott, who lived briefly in New Rochelle.

So there's another connection here to our community.

And we'll be reading an abridged version, but you're going to recognize many of the phrasings in this document.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.

Having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.

He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.

He has endeavored in every way that he could destroy her confidence in her own powers to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

As citizens of these United States.

Wow.

Well, thank you, Barbara and Vila, for that wonderful reading, reminding us of how far we have come in our country.

And of course, we all note we still have many, many miles and much further to go.

But now I'd like to bring up a reader who will be reading from the um from Raghi Ron, Roggy Rain, I'm sorry, on behalf of NAIC, the United Methodist Church.

It is a merciless reminder on July 4th.

A statement on the 4th of July from the Native American International Caucus.

This was in 2023.

So again, some of these readings are just very recent.

And I'd like to bring up Ginny Rock Bailey.

She's a proud descendant of the Linnae Lenape Indigenous Group from Monmouth County, New Jersey, and is currently a New Rochelle resident and business owner.

Ginny.

First of all, I want to tell you how honored I am as a descendant of the Linnae Lenape community to be asked to read this statement because it means so much to me and my family.

It's called a Merciless Reminder on the Fourth of July, a statement on the Fourth of July by the Native American International Caucus.

The Fourth of July is not a celebration for all.

Reflection.

What does freedom mean?

Embracing the seven generations teachings.

We fully engage in each moment and affirm we are still here.

Still we rise.

Refer to our ancestors as merciless Indian savages.

Our sovereignty was discarded.

Our treaties were violated, and our voices were excluded from the discussion.

We recognize that we still do not have the place at the table.

Despite everything, we are still here.

We are the descendants of those who survived massacres, forced removals, and attempts at forced assimilation.

We carry the songs of our grandmothers, the medicine of our grandfathers, and the stories that the fire still remembers.

Let the world know that we do not need permission to exist.

We refuse to be re-erased.

And we're still standing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ginny.

So at what have we learned today?

While we are here to celebrate the declaration and our 250th anniversary of the country, there's much work still to be done, opinions to be considered and recognized, and we need to move forward in the future, as always, for the betterment of mankind.

And I want to thank all the speakers who came out today for their passionate deliveries and for the work and that they've done for our country and our city.

So thank you all for your um for your talent and your readings.

Now we do have Barbara, if you'll come up and give a little bit of a wrap-up of what we have in store for more celebrations of the 250 and for the rest of the day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Catherine's definitely the MC to have.

Yes, she is.

A little applause for Catherine.

Yes, it's a more perfect union, is how we refer to our country.

And yes, um, there's always striving for a more perfect union.

The 250th committee has organized this event and has some others.

We have a wishing wall outside the council chambers as you walk down.

It was in the library.

This was a downtown business improvement district sponsored program.

You can give your own wishes.

They are collected and all put into a database countrywide that is being gathered throughout the year.

When I mentioned the 8,000 troops getting off in Staten Island, um, you have to realize that they all ended up here in New Rochelle.

In October 1776, there were over 10,000 British and Hessian troops encamped on our soil in your backyards.

And uh eventually on October 27th, they marched up North Avenue to uh get to White Plains for the Battle of White Plains, but they were encamped here, and then after that, for uh more than seven years, as part of the neutral ground.

Um, Neurochell people experienced the war years like no other.

Um, the county of Westchester as a whole suffered harder and longer than any other place in the colonies.

We have an exhibit outside called It Happened Here that will give you all this information.

It's based on firsthand accounts that are really powerful, and you'll see some contemporary photographs.

It might even be your own backyard.

Uh, yes, I can tell you that most of your backyards were used by the British or Hessians, and the things that went on here here were atrocities.

Um, and it was a very challenging device of time.

This October uh for the 250th, there will be a tall ship coming in uh October 14th through the 18th.

Um that is when the military activity occurred in this area, and uh the Sound Shore communities have gathered together to bring in the tall ship.

There will be a reenactment of the very important Battle of Pelham, and that will lead up to the huge cast of thousands, Battle of White Plains that will be reenacted at Ward Poundridge Reservation.

So stay tuned, keep tabs on the city's website.

There's our our great communications and marketing team have a very um updated uh home uh page for the 250th with all of the activities, and there will be others.

Um, it is the local level that I think the 250 really resounds at, so I hope that we all um join together in using this opportunity to reflect and reflect on how we are all moving forward.

Thank you all so much for coming today.

We have some light refreshments.

Please take time to take a look at the exhibit and talk amongst one another's reflect on the readings.

I thank all of the readers.

I didn't get through myself, and all of you.

Have a good day.