i want to thank mike farrah for his leadership and mayor newsom for helping facilitate this gathering. i'm iranian american, persians, and throughout my -- [applause] throughout my life, my family had always had very close relationships with the arab and arab-american community. i spent a fair amount of time working in the middle east in jordan and iraq and traveling through loud the milk -- throughout the middle eastern areas, so i feel very much at home, and it is important that feeling is well represented in city hall. i look at the flags that are well illustrated year. it amplifies the need that much more that san franciscans, californians should understand and become more acquainted with the arab-american culture. if the census proves me right, when the numbers come out next year officially, we will see a significant growth of the arab- american population in the san francisco bay area but also throughout the state of california. that is critical because it means that much more that arab- americans have the right and the reason to want to make sure that their interests are being