[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 97 (Wednesday, July 14, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H5660]]
           EXPRESSING PRIDE IN NORTH CAROLINA'S JOHN EDWARDS

  (Mr. MILLER of North Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MILLER of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, as many other North 
Carolina Members have in the last few days, I rise to express my 
hometown pride in the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee of my 
party, John Edwards. John Edwards has been very, very successful in his 
life. We used to call that the American Dream. But that is not where he 
started out. Where he started out and how he got where he is today is 
important, and he has learned from it.
  I know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are very 
tired of hearing that Senator Edwards is the son of a mill worker, but 
it is true and it is important. He understands what most folks' lives 
are like because his life has been the same way. His father worked in 
the mill, as my father did. His mother worked in the post office. His 
life has been like the lives of ordinary Americans. He had to depend on 
public schools to get ahead. Wallace and Bobbi Edwards could never in 
this world have sent John Edwards to some expensive New England 
boarding school. He had to go to the public schools. He understands to 
the depth of his soul the importance of public education for middle-
class Americans and the importance of public education in creating 
opportunities for ordinary Americans.

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