more and more from members of your communities on issues of politics i've heard a lot from folks about this recent proposal to register people of asian descent in opposition to the proposal i've been pleased to stand up in opposition to that proposal and i look forward engaging further with you i encourage you to be in touch with your legislators with myself with david rogers and of course with the good members of this town government that you have here present out and jim williams the others that have been such strong leaders of this town engaged become part of this community and i'm seeing more and more of it i'm glad to see it i thank you for having me today and again i wish you a happy new year various newspapers i just wanted to some my name is mike mcallister and i have the honor of being the principal this year chattery middle school and so this is where i spend my mondays through fridays and i got to be honest it's a little strange to be here this sunday but i'm so glad that you are able to appreciate what i see every day monday through friday which is amazing talent and amazing dedication and hard work incredible family and community support so i just wanted to be able to fake you for welcoming me but also wanted to be able to welcome you i'm so glad that the middle school can host this this event for us for you all so thank you all for being here tonight happy chinese new year my name is dave rogers on the state representative for arlington belmont cambridge what an event this is amazing so many talented performers great music and dance and you should all be so proud of your children belmont is so lucky to have such a wonderful community and this is a tremendous event so congratulations it's wonderful to be here and happy chinese new year of dash i'm one of the selectmen here in belmont welcome to belmont and we're really happy to have you here and we really thank the chinese community for all that you do to enrich belmont make it a better place to live and on that note i would like to ask if any of you would like to be interested in joining one of our belmont town committees we'd be happy to have you and i've had people say to me you know adam i'm not u s citizen i can't join the committee and that is where you would be wrong because you can join one of our  whether you're a citizen of the united states or not so i encourage you to do that on behalf of the town of beaumont to wish you a happy healthy and successful new year  my name's jim williams i'm also a selectman it belmont and this year i'm the chairman of the board of selectmen this is my third event my friend gang's out invited me for the first time three years ago i'd like to wish everyone a happy new year and i want to talk about the year of the dog for a minute so i brought some notes so if you'll allow me it's my privilege and pleasure to be here with you today to celebrate the chinese new year of the dog the eleventh animal in the chinese zodiac and symbol of loyalty and honesty people born in the year of the daughters said to traits of human nature they are honest friendly loyal smart straightforward venerable and they have a strong sense of responsibility don't pay attention to how long ago that was but it was it was the year of the dog so since i was born in one nine hundred forty six i leave it to each of you to research what their negatives can be as i prefer only t announce the best traits this evening i think these traits are especially important in the coming year given the tough times we're facing in the current global circumstances the year ahead of us promises to bring many challenges but the new year also brings with it the opportunity to work harder to martyr and to be problem solvers an opportunity takers the belmont and greater boston chinese community has also enrich the lives of all of us only and and bellman tony and through this celebration of chinese art cuisine and traditions as well as contributing to our local economy welcome and thank you i especially breaks some of the ideas allowed to is a principled way to do business and for governments to behave celebrations like the one we have gathered here today for this evening have become an important part of belmont and boston's cultural calendar these celebrations provide the opportunities to demonstrate the richness of chinese culture and the diversity of our communities it's my hope that the year of the dog will bring good fortune where the luck anomalies one six nine six five four one system