Governor Hochul: “We still have time. I want to ask every one of you take this week, talk to your loved ones, talk to your neighbor and say, are you vaccinated? Because if you’re not, you’re hurting other people. God calls us to serve, not just him, but to serve each other. That’s in Jeremiah. He wants us to serve each other. How do we serve each other? We keep ourselves alive, but also we keep our neighbors alive.”
Earlier this morning, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Governor Hochul: I am so honored to be here. I was here to celebrate your tenth anniversary, what a great celebration that was. And we spoke about the legacy that you’ve already created.
And we know that we are here because God calls each of us to serve. We serve in different ways. I serve the Lord through my work in government now as your governor. But what you do is so critically important to build affordable housing for people and to create a community where there was none. And I want to work with you to continue that work as we spread the word of God through our actions and give people hope, because that’s something that has been missing during this pandemic. Many people felt hopeless and they felt abandoned as they’re starting to hear the sirens every night and losing people.
Reverend Brawley: Now, Governor, that’s my sermon.
Governor Hochul: I am not going to steal your sermon.
Reverend Brawley: Let me do this. I’m going to give you some time to just talk to St. Paul nation. But before I do that, I’m just going to ask you publicly, can we meet?
Governor Hochul: We are meeting and it’s not just here we are. We have an important meeting set up because we know you have some really good plans. I’m not going to tip the hand, but I believe in your cause and what you’re doing to continue helping lift people up. We need it now.
Reverend Brawley: Thank you, Governor. I just want to give everybody a heads up. She came up with a Bible in her hand. She’s going to preach. Go ahead.
Governor Hochul: Little bit of pressure on me. I am here just to say how my heart swells with pride to be able to be back here and to see every one of you. I know it’s been a long, long struggle, but I’m here to say, just as the Bible tells us, there is hope because God has a plan for each and every one of us and to never give up on God’s plan.
We have to have faith in him, as do I, and circumstances put me in this position. I hear the calling of God every single day when my eyes open. He says, get out there and fight for the people of the great state of New York. And I want to tell you, I take that so seriously, that is in my heart, and I need your help with something really important. We have to get through this pandemic.
We’ve lost too many. People are exhausted, they’re tired, they’re anxious, I can feel it in my bones. And all the little kids and grandkids who don’t want to wear masks anymore in schools, I understand this. We have the way out. We know there is an answer and that answer is to get everyone vaccinated so we can finally say we won the war against this pandemic. Are you with me with that? Can we get that done?
We have a very important holiday coming up, Thanksgiving. And many people could not gather last year because they were anxious about getting grandma and grandpa sick and they didn’t have a chance to hug their little babies. This year we can because we’re vaccinated, but too many people are not.
We still have time. I want to ask every one of you take this week, talk to your loved ones, talk to your neighbor and say, are you vaccinated? Because if you’re not, you’re hurting other people. God calls us to serve, not just him, but to serve each other. That’s in Jeremiah. He wants us to serve each other. How do we serve each other? We keep ourselves alive, but also we keep our neighbors alive. And that is the message I need all of you to help me get out there. And now our little kids, five to eleven year olds, little grandkids, can now get this life saving vaccine.
I’m going to tell you a little extra bonus. We know how important education is. That is how my parents were lifted out of poverty. My parents lived in a trailer park while my dad worked at the steel plant a long time ago up in Buffalo, New York, immigrants who found a job and a shot the American dream. But my father was able to get an education to lift himself out of those circumstances, lift his family up, and eventually his daughter could become the governor of the state of New York because of that education.
And so, here’s a surprise announcement to all of the kids who get vaccinated in the next few weeks, they can have a shot at winning a full college education, free ride. How does that sound? Fifty young people will enter our lottery to be able to say, I have a shot and we’re going to do that.
In addition to that, I want to let you know we have to fight for those babies in another way. There is too much violence in our streets, way too much violence. I am dedicated to working with our next mayor to make sure that we make this a high priority to protect our neighborhoods, to make sure that our police have the resources they need to protect our communities, but to make sure they do it in the right and just way. That is what we’re going to do.
Protect, but do it in a way that protects and respects the people they’re charged with protecting. We can find that right balance, I know we can. Here’s something that’s brand new and newsflash, you’re going to have a governor of the state of New York who works with the mayor and the city of New York. How about that for news?
This is how we’re going to lift people up and make a difference in their lives. And I will not be a stranger to this. I am always here, ask my husband. I wanted you to meet someone. This is the first gentleman of the state of New York, the first first gentleman, Bill Hochul. He wants to be with his wife, he has to come to Brooklyn all the time, because this is where we are.
I want to thank you my friends just for a couple of minutes, but we have some building to do, Reverend Brawley, we have some building to do, and that is my commitment. We’re going to get it done because the people need us to work together.
That is what I pledge. That is what I believe God has put all of us here to do, to work together for you.
Thank you. And God bless you.
