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MARGARET WARNER: Before we go tonight, some farewell words from Rudy
Giuliani, who steps down as New York's mayor at year's end. Giuliani
won acclaim for his leadership after the September 11 attacks, and this
week was named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year." He spoke today
at St. Paul's Chapel, a pre-revolutionary war Episcopal Church just
a block from the site of the World Trade Center.
MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI, New York: There's one big change that's taken
place that's the most important and the one that I wanted it bring about,
and that one I'm really sure of. It's a change in the spirit of the
city. That city that used to be the rotting apple, that 60%, 70%, 80%
of the people wanted to leave and nobody wanted to come to -- that city
now is a very strong and it's a confident city; it's a city that has
withstood the worth attack of any city in America or in the history
of America and people are standing up as tall, as strong and as straight
as this church.
We're in a very holy place, and we're really on territory that is hallowed
in very special ways by the presence of George Washington and all of
our brave heroes that gave their lives. Never before, I don't think
in the history of America, have so many people died and then ended up
saving so many people.
So I think we have an obligation to the people who did die to make
sure of two things about which there can be absolutely no compromise:
Their families need to be protected just as if they had been alive financially
and in every other way that we can help and assist their families.
There should be no compromise about that ever. (Applause) And second,
this place has to be sanctified. This place has to become a place in
which, when anybody comes here, immediately they're going to feel the
great power and strength and emotion of what it means to be an American.
We have to do that. And not worry about other things because this is
too important a place. In their memory, we have to do that.
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