Bring out the barf bags for this one

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/200506 ... _mayor.php


The Unity Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa
June 02, 2005

Antonio Villaraigosa is mayor-elect of Los Angeles.

I come today as someone who believes that this is a great and beautiful country. I was asked earlier today what was the significance of my victory and I said, we live in a country where we had a civil rights act and a voting rights act that opened up the country to someone like me. We live in a country where people fought to ensure that America was all that it held itself out to be. And in many ways that’s what our charge is here as we talk about taking back and reclaiming America.

I come today as a patriot, knowing that there are few places in the world where the son of an immigrant, a young boy who grew up in a home of alcoholism and domestic violence, a high-school dropout, could go on to become speaker of the California state assembly, or now on the threshold of being the mayor of the city of America’s hope and its promise.

I talk about patriotism because I think for too long progressives have allowed some to wrap themselves around the flag and say, America, love it or leave it. I say, America, I love you but I want you to be all that you held yourself out to be. I look at the city of Los Angeles. Make no mistake; it’s an incredible place. Wherever I went I said, I’m running for mayor because I believe in you. I believe in your destiny. I believe that this city is the city of America’s hope. It’s the place where we come from every corner of the earth to live out the American dream. It’s a place where we come from every part of the United States. I used to joke that you could grow up in a trailer park in Topeka, Kan., go to a talent agency, work in the mailroom and one day run it. Now, that’s the kind of place that Los Angeles is.

It’s a place with some 30 different nationalitiesâ€â€