[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 178 (Friday, November 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14604-S14605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRATULATING THE REGENT-MOTT STATE CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL TEAM
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I know the Senate is about to adjourn. I
wish to take a minute. Last evening, I called a legion club in a small
town in southwestern North Dakota, a State I am privileged to represent
in the Senate, and said congratulations to a group of young men from my
hometown of slightly less than 300 people, Regent, ND, who combined
with a school in Mott. The Regent-Mott team won the nine-man State
championship football game last week at the Fargo Dome in Fargo, ND. I
called last evening to several hundred people who gathered to say
congratulations to the players and talk about how proud they were. I
wish to add my congratulations today. I told them I was going to do so
on the floor of the Senate.
It is a big deal for a small community to have the kind of community
pride and the achievement of winning a State championship.
The communities of Regent and Mott--the community I grew up in was a
town of 300 people in Regent, ND, and
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Mott is slightly larger than that, but it is a wonderful community. It
is a community that has the kind of small-town values one would expect.
When I grew up in that community, I graduated in a senior high school
class of nine students. I have always talked about the tapestry of the
Senate. I sit in the Senate with Joe Lieberman, from Connecticut, on
one side of me and Dianne Feinstein, a Senator from California, on the
other side. We have people coming from all corners of this country to
serve in this great place. My privilege is to come from a town of about
300 people and a high school senior class of nine students.
We didn't, when I was in that senior class of nine students, win a
State championship. Finally, the students from that school combined
with a school in neighboring Mott, ND, and did win a State
championship. They are enormously proud, and I am proud of them. They
actually played in what is called the Fargo Dome, a very large indoor
dome in Fargo, ND. That is over 300 miles from southwestern North
Dakota, but distance doesn't mean too much to us out on the northern
Great Plains. Driving is not such a chore. There is not a lot of
traffic. People are pretty courteous to each other. We drive a lot of
miles on virtually every occasion.
I wished to describe the pride I have in a very small community.
Hettinger County, to describe one more specific, in North Dakota, is
larger than the State of Rhode Island in landmass. It has 2,700
citizens in the entire county spread out among three towns and also a
lot of family farms. It is, in my judgment, the cradle of family values
and all things that are sensible and all things that are likable about
American life.
I wished to, again, come to the floor today to say to the Regent and
Mott schools and those young boys in Hettinger County congratulations
on a State championship and to the coach who has coached for 22 years.
One might expect the number of hours that man has invested in the lives
of young people, and last Saturday he had the privilege of coaching a
State championship team. I know how proud he is as well.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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