Amy Klobuchar: “In May, I joined Governor Pawlenty, Senator Coleman and our Minnesota Congressional Delegation, our State legislators…”

“In May, I joined Governor Pawlenty, Senator Coleman and our Minnesota Congressional Delegation, our State legislators and thousands of Minnesotans in celebrating Minnesota's 150 years as a State. We are proud to be a State where--in the words of our unofficial poet laureate Garrison Keillor--all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the sesquicentennials are above average. For 150 years, our State has been built by people who knew they had to work hard, had to be bold, and had to persevere--to overcome the adversities and hardships that confronted them. Each one of us here is a part of Minnesota's illustrious history. And each one of us has our own story about our Minnesota heritage. Mine has its roots in the rough and tumble Iron Range, where my grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines of Ely. He and my grandma graduated from high school, but they saved money in a coffee can to send my dad to college. The little house they lived in all their lives they got when the mine closed down in Babbitt. They loaded it on the back of a flatbed truck and dynamited out a hole for the basement in Ely. The only problem was my grandpa used too much dynamite and the neighbor's wash went down a block away from all the flying rocks. I told the story up north a while back and some old guy stood up and yelled out, 'As if we don't remember!'. They have long memories up on the Range.”