Good morning, everyone.

How truly wonderful it is for my wife Betty and I to be here today, on this hallowed ground, to pay tribute to the brave men who sacrificed so much in service to our Navy and our nation. And I want to thank all the military service members who are here today for your service to our country. Thank you. Can you please stand and be recognized?

Superintendent [K. Lynn] Berry, thank you for that kind introduction. And please don't ever have me follow Hilary [Grabowska] again, please. And for your long career of public service, our nation is lucky to have you here. Let's have another round for the superintendent, and for all the park rangers nationwide that serve our great nation. Please stand and be recognized.

I will tell you, that as this administration strives to reduce your numbers and deny the National Park Service the necessary resources to perform your duties, I affirm that we need more of you, and not less of you. And that will be clearly seen this summer as our American citizens rush to the National Parks all across the nation.

To Representative [Mark] DeSaulnier, who could not be here today, I want to thank him for his hard work on behalf of all his constituents here in the 10th District, and also for the long years of advocacy on behalf of the Port Chicago 50 and all of the Sailors.

To Mayor [Carlyn] Obringer of Concord, and to the many other supervisors and other government leaders here today, thank you for the leadership of Concord, California, and the surrounding region.

To President [of the Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial] Mark Bruner, Reverend Diana McDaniel, Ms. Yulie Padmore, Ms. Sandra Evers-Manly, and to all those here in the audience, thank you again for your advocacy on behalf of these brave Sailors, and for keeping the memory of this tragedy — that has so often been overlooked — alive.

And I again recognize all the family members. Could you please stand as well, too? To all the family members, in person and in spirit, of those brave men who sacrificed so much, the Navy and our nation will forever owe you a debt of gratitude.

And finally, to my dear friend and colleague, the Honorable Sean Coffey, my General Counsel, whom I miss working with dearly. It's great to see you, Sean. You look much more relaxed. Your hair's a little bit longer. And it's just wonderful to be with you. Sean, thank you for your relentless work and that of your team, and also for you and your wife Anne's many years of service to our country in uniform. We did many good things together, did we not?

Why We Gather to Remember

Dearest friends, Americans, and fellow citizens still committed to a more perfect union. Those here, and those watching across the nation, today we gather at this holy place to remember our Port Chicago 50 Sailors and the other 208 brave Sailors also exonerated. To celebrate their lives and the courageousness and honorable example that they set for all Americans. To pay tribute to their exoneration, long overdue, just one year ago. Now some may ask, why must we always gather to pay them tribute? You see, I believe we must do so for three reasons:

First, to dignify their past, their struggle. They deserve our continued recognition every year for their extreme bravery and for the example they continue to set for future generations of Americans young and old.

Second, unfortunately, still too many Americans and others do not know their story. The history of the Port Chicago Sailors who suffered this great injustice. I hope that these yearly gatherings, the future museum, the many books written and still yet to be written, and that very special play, and perhaps even a future movie, will continuously help to tell their stories. By the way, if there is a movie, I'm willing to play in it for no charge.

The Struggle for Equality and Justice Must Continue

Now finally, and perhaps most importantly, we now once again must stand side by side like witnesses on a bridge together, clearly understanding that the struggle for equality and justice must continue. The journey is not over. The fight has not ended. And the struggle to reach the promised land, so passionately pursued for all by Dr. Martin Luther King and his generation of Americans, continues for many others today in our nation.

The struggle must continue because sexism, racism, and discrimination against African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and other minorities in this country is now far more prevalent than a year ago when we last gathered.

The struggle must continue because discrimination by our government leaders, especially those in the most senior positions against the LGBTQ community, is once again relentlessly on the rise, with seemingly little protection from Congress or the courts.

The struggle must continue because sexism is also on the rise. Once again, after so many years of progress, and I mean decades of progress, by both Republican and Democratic administrations, it appears quite blatantly that women today, especially in our military services, are being denied their right to compete equally with men from positions of higher authority. They are instead routinely dismissed from their positions simply because they are women.

The truth is simply the truth. It cannot be masked by anyone with weak alternative explanations, deceptions, or worse yet, no explanations whatsoever.

Just two days ago, the Navy reported that the first female superintendent of the Naval Academy will be replaced just 18 months into what is normally a three or four-year term of service. While we may be thankful that she is not being forced to retire like so many others recently, it is also shameful that she is not being permitted to fully complete her tour of duty as so many male superintendents prior to her have been allowed to do.

Where are the voices of justice today? We, here, must be those voices.

Now more than ever, we must never forget. Our leaders must not twist historical truths nor stain them with lies to mask the often dark reality understood by so many for so long.

We must not play gimmicks, or praise traitors, instead we should always tell the truth plainly, fight for the equal rights of all Americans, and treat all of our citizens with the dignity and respect they deserve.

I assure you that I will remain committed to this cause, and I hope that you will as well.

Closing Reflections and Call to Justice

In closing, let me simply state that exonerating the Port Chicago Sailors was one of the greatest accomplishments of our time in office. It was simply the right thing to do, and we did it.

Finding the justifiable path to do it under the law was also an absolute necessity. For that, I will be forever thankful to our General Counsel and his brilliant team of lawyers and others who made the necessary discoveries in order to do so. Honorable Sean Coffey, we cannot thank you and our team of brilliant lawyers sufficiently for making those discoveries. You are a true hero, my friend, inspired by many, including your extraordinary Navy spouse and also a hero amongst heroes.

As I stated last year, the Port Chicago 50 and those 208 Sailors stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, a fight for what is right can and must always prevail.

Their legacy should always inspire us to be more vigilant, to speak truth to power, to fight against racism, sexism, and discrimination, to reject the politics of fear so prevalent today, and to never give up on the pursuit of liberty, equality, and justice for all.

Let us continue to learn from the mistakes of the past and the present, and commit to building a future where every voice is heard in this country, every life is valued in this country, for the promise of a more just America.

May God bless you all and may God bless America.