An interview with Elizabeth Edwards (she mentions DU) [View All]

[AP]

CP: I read that your father was very involved in ROTC on your college campus, UNC-Chapel Hill, during the Vietnam War what was that like?

EE: My dad was actually the head of the Navy ROTC program at Chapel Hill. He had previously been head of all Navy ROTC programs and he used to come home with his head in his hands and say, you know, the protestors bombed Michigan, they burned something in the ROTC unit at Berkeley. He was trying to navigate a course, dad was a good Democrat and he was not intolerant about the protests and so he would not do anything to provoke people, he just tried to keep his head down and do his job. And for me, since my last name at the time was Anania and it was pretty unique, everybody that I came in contact with knew my connection with my father. I would warn them to lay low if there was a campus protest coming their way.

...

CP: What new challenges do you see for young people in college now?

EE: Well, I know this from talking to my daughter Cate. A lot of times on the campaign trail, she would say that she felt she was part of the first generation that was looking towards a worse life than their parents as opposed to a better life. That’s not what we’re supposed to be about. And that changes your attitude, your perspective, your optimism about your own future. People might be feeling a little hopeless in terms of their possibilities of success or the pressures of diminished opportunities, she feels like people are just putting more attention on their own personal success as opposed to focusing on communal success.

...

CP: I hear you are an internet news junkie. What’s in your media diet?


EE: After the recent election I’ve been spending a lot of time on channels that have to do with garden landscaping because it was just easier for me, less heartburn. I just get very frustrated listening to mainstream media, like they will report that the new budget increases {sic? decreases?} money for Pell Grants. I just want to say, I beg your pardon? They’re cutting off 90,000 people from those grants, and it isn’t even part of the discussion.


I do listen to CSPAN in the car and Air American and Talk Left radio. I read the Washington Post and the New York Times. But I go to a lot of websites, I spend a lot of time on the internet. I get a lot of information from blogs, I have a whole list including Talking Points, Daily Kos, Democratic Underground and more. Sometimes I check out the right wing sites to see what they are talking about. I have a whole folder of sites and I open them all up every day and see what catches my eye.

http://campusprogress.org/features/127/five-minutes-with-elizabeth-edwards