we will aword our courage award to the daughter of the late slain oswaldo paya. let me thank all of our sponsors, but in particular mr. thomas peterfy and ms. lynn wheat, alex and kathy crayonburg, and thomas w. and die onsmith for their support and for all of our sponsors for making this happen. with this, i am going to turn it over to the chair of our first panel and common sense society's newest senior fellow, dr. john peede, who is also the longest serving chairman for the national endowment for human tees. so, over to you. >> thank you. thank you. good morning. it's a pleasure, it's an honor to be here with the common sense society with this panel. i will make a one or two-sentence introduction of our three panelists. they will make remarks. you have a more extensive biographical description of them in the program. after their make their brief remarks, i will ask a few questions, and we will turn it over to the audience to hear from you. and since i am a mississippian, and you never want one of us to speak ad hoc i have written my remarks to try to allow tim