Byron Dorgan: “I was in North Dakota, and I met a wonderful man in North Dakota who was our State's oldest citizen, 110 years old. His…”

“I was in North Dakota, and I met a wonderful man in North Dakota who was our State's oldest citizen, 110 years old. His name is Nels Burger. He is a wonderful Norwegian man who grew up and lived on a farm in North Dakota. He has a vivid recollection and memory of farming in North Dakota all those many years. I was thinking, as I was preparing to come to the floor today, of the things that have changed during the lifetime of Nels Burger. It you think of what has changed in 110 years in this country, it is really quite remarkable. Nels was born in 1885. There was once a story about an old fellow being interviewed by a radio interviewer, and the interviewer said to him--he was 85, 90 years old--``You must have seen a lot of changes in your life.'' The old fellow said, ``Yep, and I was against every one of them.'' Well, there are people like that. They are against every change as it is proposed. Yet, a series of changes have made life better in this country. We are going to talk this week about the minimum wage.”