sharansky who? sharansky by reagan. i mean these these intellectual and spiritual lineages are important. and so i just close with that statement. i think it's the call for us today, reagan said. america's kept like the torch of freedom, not just for ourselves, but for millions of others around the world and. today we say, let's keep the torch alive. for billions of people around the world. thank you. nina. okay. thank you. i really want to thank, especially lee edwards, for his vision in creating this victims of and memorial to my good friend elizabeth spalding and ambassador bromberg for work in in organizing all of this especially as we begin to forget and as we as it recedes in history and and some of us as we said, weren't even. and the issues do resonate with what's going on in ukraine and china and other places. so in the late eighties, i the honor of briefing president one on one in the oval office and we discussed it at that time. a recent fact finding mission for center for religious freedom on the nicaraguan

we sharansky out in fact sharansky his wife, when she called me, he had just been arrested. he was about she was about 30 years old at the time, and she was crying on the phone. and she said, i have only one wish. get him out in time for him to give me baby. and i got him out when she was 39. she had two children. i am essentially their godfather and. you know, those kinds of cases give you tremendous, tremendous pride. you sleep well at night. but when you represent people who you wish you were prosecuting. but that's not the job were assigned. you have to do everything in your power ethically, zealously, legal way to try to make the best defense. and sometimes when you win, you go home. you have that glass of scotch, and then you have that glass and saying, why did pick this profession? why wasn't i a doctor? well, i guess that brings me to the question how did you feel when oj simpson was acquitted? oh, i felt very good about that i'll tell you why. and one of my heroes, bill bratton, is in the audience. they'll appreciate this. we didn't win the o.j. simpson case. the po