ms. maria leonard olsen to the dais. [applause] diane's. >> thank you so much for that. i'm so excited to be here. i grew up in montgomery county and i was the only dark skinned person in my entire white parochial kensington classroom in the 1960s through 70s. my parents were forbidden by law to marry in the state of maryland in 1961. when i tell my children that or even strangers that they are incredulous that it was illegal in 16 states including maryland and virginia for people of other races to mary. that is crazy. likewise, when my children tell their children that dad and dad were not able to marry until 2015, they won't believe it. there are so made changes going on in our society right now with which the family paradigm is changing is quite remarkable that only in my childhood people couldn't get married who were up two different races and now it is so common that no one would blink and i. although i still don't want my children going to school in the south because i have experienced racism in the south, so there are pockets of racism which we all know, but the t