The idea of knowing I am in the presence of the mayor was memorable and I was speechless about it. The adult I was with actually got to shake hands with the mayor – and even he felt – wow. It isn’t on a regular basis that someone – most especially a high school student. I am part of Leadership Council, National Honors Society, and Student Ambassador Program in my school. In addition – as a part of Student Ambassador Program – I give tours to possible donors for our school. These donors are very important people – they rank from professors at colleges to Vice President of local TV stations, such as Tom Levee (Vice President and Local Sales Manages – Channel 7). Where I am going with this is to say that it is important that I know how to speak with other people without feeling fear or nervousness. I had the chance to speak with Brian L. Cummings, the Fire Chief of Los Angeles Fire Department, and Vice President of Commissions for the county. I must say, the VP of Commissions had an interesting wardrobe and I had to speak to him. When I did, I found out he wore his clothing because of his religion: Sikh. He had told me about the symbol Kesh, meaning hair is uncut and usually tied and wrapped in a Sikh Turban called Dastar. In addition, he wore a dress robe in nice yellow gold. You really learn something new every day.

Speaking of learning, I had contradictions introduced to me. A video was shown before Mayor Villaraigosa had begun his speech. The video spoke fairly well about what has been increasing in Los Angeles – from education to crimes to Measure-R. The main idea of the video was telling the audience that education in Los Angeles itself has been increasing and because of this, crimes have been decreasing. More teenagers have been kept out of juveniles because of the activities the schools have opened – for afterschool and weekends. In addition, the goal is to make Los Angeles a more “Green” place with increase in recycling and decrease in pollution. Furthermore, Measure-R is one of the target goals aiming to be achieved sooner rather than later where new generations of engineers are attempting to get traffic release made possible by Measure-R.

In the mayor’s speech, he pretty much talks about Measure-R and the plans for it. He mentions that with the sales tax that funds the transit, by 2039, billions will be raised in order to achieve the goal to intertwine and provide multiple railroad connections. The building of these transits will increase hobs and reduce highway traffic.

Mayor Villaraigosa often circulated on the topic, but it was reasonable. He was bringing his point out there. The fact that he was not reading anything – no Teleprompters or speech from the paper – it was great. I guess he did a nice job at memorizing (if it was memorized). I admire the man. He seems kind and wonderful. Despite the statistics that go against the video I spoke of in the earlier paragraph, I was pretty amazed at what has changed in Los Angeles.