For the whole video see: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=6076255.
In closing, let me repeat something that I have said on more than one occasion over the past 17 months since Hurricane Katrina.
The real story of our recovery here in Biloxi is not the casinos or condos or how massive the destruction was from this storm.
The real story has been and continues to be YOU, the people of Biloxi and how you have dealt with this ordeal.
Governor Barbour likes to tell the national media about how the people of Mississippi are not into victimhood. How we didn't look for someone to blame.
We got knocked down and we hitched up our britches and went about the work of picking up the pieces of our lives.
In our city water department, we had about 13,000 customers before the storm, and a number of them were senior citizens on fixed incomes living on the Point.
On the third of every month, they would receive their Social Security checks and they'd go by the water department on Main Street that afternoon to pay their water bill.
The staff over there built up quite a relationship with those folks, many of whom they don't see anymore.
But about two weeks after the storm -- a week before we even were able to open the office -- the staff was sweeping out the water and mud. They had the doors wide open to clear out that smell.... You know that smell we all remember and we all want to forget.
And on one of those hot and humid days, a little old lady from the Point drove up and made her way into the office.
She had her water bill in one hand and her change purse in the other.
She had lost everything she had in the storm, but she was there to pay that bill.
She had everyone over there in tears.
And, just as we've seen so many of our people do so many times in the wake of this storm, she hugged one of the girls in the office, and said, "Don't worry, darling, it's going to be OK."
I wish I knew who that lady was, because I'd give her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
She's the stuff that the people of Biloxi are made of.
At the outset of this speech, I told you that future generations are going to look back on this chapter in our history as a time when we made the right decisions ... when we cherished and protected our culture ... and we did things to improve and enhance our quality of life.
They're going to see this as an historic time.
If that sounds familiar, it's something that Haley Barbour said in his State of the State address last year.
It's something I also said to you in 2004, more than a year before Hurricane Katrina.
You see, we were on the right track before this storm, and we're going to stay on the right track.
We in this room today and all of the people of Biloxi have a unique opportunity.
We are in the midst of something most people can only dream of.
We were making history before this storm, and we stand poised to make history again.
Imagine that.... Some people are lucky to be a part of history once in their lifetime. We have the chance to be part of history TWICE in our lifetime.
To paraphrase Haley Barbour's mentor, Ronald Reagan, "For all of the success we've seen here in Biloxi, our best days lie ahead."
God bless all of you and God bless Biloxi.
From The Sun Herald