An American Dream come true...

[tryanhas]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-02-29-edwards-essay.htm

[gottaB]

1. wow

endearing

[DjTj]

2. Atticus Finch for President! (nt)

[Mairead]

3. Truly charming. But a reflection of great privilege, too

There were plenty children that age at that time whose situation was such that the highest ambition that didn't seem totally out of reach was simply to be alive and have a job, maybe waitressing or pumping gas.

[DjTj]

4. At that age, children always have big dreams...

...firefighter, policeman, fighter pilot.

At 11 you're just out of elemntary school and nobody aspires to be a waittress. I didn't exactly grow up in a situation of privilege, but at 11 I definitely still had big dreams.

John Edwards managed to achieve his and it was from no shortage of hard work, being the first in his family to go to college and having to work his way through.

[Mairead]

5. It's always difficult to know what to say to someone who supposes

that their experience of childhood was the universal minimum :(

[DjTj]

6. I'm curious...

...as to what your experience was like at that age?

My childhood certainly was not the universal minimum, but every little girl or boy I ever met happily answers the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with a proud "Fireman! Teacher! Truck Driver! Basketball Player! Rapper!"

...Eleven might be close to the line when some of that innoncence is stripped away, but I see this snippet of childhood as something that could come from any child in any elementary school who had gotten a chance to see To Kill a Mockingbird or Perry Mason.