Our theme for this year's festivities Dreams and Challenges of Asian Pacific Americans speaks to the many generations of Asian Pacific Americans who worked hard to overcome economic hardship racism and other barriers in their pursuit of the American dream.

Looking back 25 years later what I may say is that the facts have been far better than the dreams. In the long course of cell life on this earth it remained for our age for our generation to receive the full ownership of our inheritance.

We have lost that which has made us great over the generations and that is the sense of individual and personal responsibility that we can come up we can pursue our dreams and our aspirations and we won't be blocked by government regulation by the inability to get a loan as a small business to make our dreams come true.

Field of Dreams is probably our generation's It's A Wonderful Life.

I feel like I am a real artist and I want to be able to feel what I am singing about. So when I sing 'Leave (Get Out) ' I have been through that. I think it is just a new generation whether people are ready for it or not. Teenagers are dating.

Before I guess mum and dad were everything but now in my case I had two new girls and all of a sudden they're completely dependent on you and there's a third generation. It's a funny shift all of a sudden. You have the babies you have yourself and then you have your parents.

My dad came from Cuba when he was a teenager not speaking English. And I grew up here speaking Spanglish. That's the world in which I grew up and that's a world in which a lot of second generation immigrants find themselves.

I know this president. And I can tell you that he cares deeply about the next generation of young women in this country - his daughters and everyone's daughters. President Obama had the courage to stand with Sandra Fluke. Without hesitation he defended her right to tell her story.

With faith and courage generations of Armenians have overcome great suffering and proudly preserved their culture traditions and religion and have told the story of the genocide to an often indifferent world.

Leadership requires the courage to make decisions that will benefit the next generation.