Grad ceremony and Senator Amy Klobuchar

I neglected to mention yesterday that US Senator Amy Klobuchar was the commencement address speaker.

Senator Klobuchar gave a pretty awesome speech, sharing with the grads a short version of her life story of simple beginnings (grandfather was an Iron Range miner, parents were a newspaper writer/columnist, and a elementary school teacher), and her starting a career in law and eventually getting into politics by running for the US Senate.

She also included a pretty funny anecdote about being invited to some presidential event in Washington DC (in the ’90s), where she had the honor of standing next to President Bill Clinton (at the time of his presidency), and the band started to play “Hail to the Chief”, and she started to move forward, but was held back by someone placing a hand on her shoulder, as they leaned in, to whisper in her ear: “Usually, when THAT song plays, I GO FIRST” (while telling us these whispered words, she imitates Bill’s Southern drawl).

Her speech was very inspiring. I was very fortunate to have heard her. Proud that she is our US Senator.

[Wikipedia says that the NY Times (in 2008) mention her to be one of seventeen women most likely to be the first female president, while MSNBC (2010) and “The New Yorker” (2014) both named her as a possible nominee for the US Supreme Court.]