Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley Says Goodbye To Boston City Council

BOSTON, MA — Congresswoman-elect Ayanna Pressley who was the first woman of color to serve in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council gave her official farewell speech, at times choking up, Wednesday at the Statehouse.

"My greatest takeaway from my time here on the council ... is that none of us do this work alone ... and there is nothing that we can't do together," said the city councilor of eight years.

Pressley, who has been a champion for girls in Boston, said she was drawn to serve on the city council to fight for girls, not to be their voice, but to lift up their voices their stories struggles and ideas.

When she first started out people offered that "saving girls wasn't the job of a Boston City Councilor but rather a mission statement for a nonprofit, and we proved them wrong," she said.

Representative government is only representative when everyone is represented, she said.

"It can be messy, it can be easily oversimplified," she said. "But representative democracy, at its core, is an awesome and sometimes terrifying experiment in how we do work together when we don't agree."

When you ask the question the conversation changes, she said. And that has been the benefit of changing demographics on the city council.

She also said:

"This work has been so very real. I'm so honored to have the opportunity and the rarefied space to do that real work. At a time when our country is at a crossroads and so paralyzed and there's such a fragility and uncertainty all around us I want to appeal to our better angels and encourage each and every one of us to worry less about elections and more about future generations. May we continue to challenge one another to do our politics and to govern in a way that's more transformational than transnational."

Before Pressley spoke, councilors took turns taking the mic to thank Pressley for her service.

Councilor Lydia Edwards from District 1 said because of Pressley the city council was better and stronger and able to imagine people in power that have not been there before.

"You are the great destroyer of glass cielings, you are the one that says why not us," said Edwards. "Everywhere you go. And because of you I am. Kim is, Andrea is... This body is a better more perfect body because [of] you."

Maureen Feeny pointed out Pressley's roots in Dorchester.

"You are a Dot girl," said Feeny, the first elected official to endorse Pressley ahead of Pressley's speech.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff