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Scout's honor: Meeting Bush
Home News Tribune Online 08/2/05
Ari Ne'eman shakes President Bush's hand at the Jamboree. Ne'eman interviewed the president.
Ari Ne'eman of East Brunswick was one of 10 hometown-news Scout correspondents selected from among 850 to meet with President Bush at the national Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia last week.
Ari Ne'eman, center, shows President Bush the Boy Scout publication Boys Life.
By JOAN HRITZ
STAFF WRITER
East Brunswick resident Ari Ne'eman took on a journalistic assignment Sunday that few 17-year-old students experience. He got to interview the president of the United States.
The interview took place during the 10-day Boy Scout Jamboree held near Bowling Green, Va. Ne'eman was one of 10 hometown news Scout correspondents selected from among 850 to meet with President Bush at Fort A.P. Hill, the Army base hosting the event. The 10 Scouts were divided into two groups of five each and talked to the president backstage at the base arena.
It took three attempts before Bush met with the Scouts, whose national event was marred by the electrocution death of four adult Scout leaders July 25 when a metal pole at the center of a large dining tent touched power lines. On Wednesday, more than 300 people were treated for heat-related illness as the humidity rose and temperatures soared into the high 90s.
Ne'eman, who will enter his senior year at East Brunswick High School, said his group talked to Bush "about literacy and things related to that. We asked him questions about what Scouting meant to him."
The teen asked Bush about a book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," by Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. The president replied he had liked the book, saying, "Mr. Sharansky is an interesting man."
Regardless of one's political opinions, "It's still a great honor to meet the president. I was struck by the friendliness with which he spoke to everyone. It was nice of him to take time out of his schedule to talk to us," Ne'eman said.
He noted that the president said "one of the great things about Scouting is that it helps to instill core values and helps people find out what they believe in them. I asked him if Scouting had given him anything that he used as president, and he said it had because it is very important to know what you believe in. Otherwise, you would just do what someone else tells you to."
When asked what books he liked as a youngster, Bush replied that he did not get seriously interested in books until he started reading about history, Ne'eman said.
"I mentioned to him that my parents were both Israelis" and the president told Ne'eman he should tell his mother and father "that they have a friend in the White House," the teen recalled. His father and mother hold dual citizenship in Israel and the United States.
Ne'eman said that "in terms of foreign policy, I would be best described as a neoconservative" who "believes very strongly that America should work to help people everywhere to realize their inalienable rights. I very much admire policies that spread democracy."
The teen called himself a fiscal conservative who is concerned about large deficits but believes money should be spent on important things like health care and creating a safety net to insure a basic standard of living. Ne'eman considers himself a social liberal.
In his conversation with the president, "I did say I admired the sort of things Mr. Sharansky spoke about in his book, which mainly focused on how international community is best served by democratic societies as opposed to authoritarianism," Ne'eman noted.
Ne'eman interned at the United Nations in July, working with a nongovernmental organization called the World Information Transfer. At his high school, he is a member of the Model U.N. Team, president of the debate team and co-president of the five-member East Brunswick Federal Reserve Challenge Competition, an annual economics competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve.
Ne'eman is a Life Scout, working on his Eagle project. He is interested in a law career and, later in life, possibly entering public office.
He has Asperger's Disorder, a high-functioning form of autism, and has undertaken speaking engagements for the New Jersey Department of Education in Washington, D.C., as well as in New Jersey. Particularly directed at high school students, his discussions focus on special-education reform.
Among the other Central New Jersey Scouts at the Jamboree was Woodbridge resident Casey Jurgens, 14, of Avenel Troop 31, which sent 19 Scouts to the event. Casey is an assistant senior patrol leader.
Casey and three friends toured the various training stations at the base, including the monkey (rope) bridge, infantry, armory and field-artillery stations, which are among the 16 he had to visit to earn a national Jamboree badge. Scouts also got a badge just for participating in the jamboree.
Casey noted that Scouts attended from several countries and that he talked to those from other areas of the United States. "We pretty much traded patches all day," with boys from other councils, which, he said, "is a big thing for Scouts."
"We were in tents at night. Oh, gosh it was horrible. It was so hot, we just sat up writing letters to people," said Casey, who was relieved to return to his air-conditioned Avenel home. He will enter ninth grade at Woodbridge High School in the fall.
Scout's honor: Meeting Bush
Home News Tribune Online 08/2/05
Ari Ne'eman shakes President Bush's hand at the Jamboree. Ne'eman interviewed the president.
Ari Ne'eman of East Brunswick was one of 10 hometown-news Scout correspondents selected from among 850 to meet with President Bush at the national Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia last week.
Ari Ne'eman, center, shows President Bush the Boy Scout publication Boys Life.
By JOAN HRITZ
STAFF WRITER
East Brunswick resident Ari Ne'eman took on a journalistic assignment Sunday that few 17-year-old students experience. He got to interview the president of the United States.
The interview took place during the 10-day Boy Scout Jamboree held near Bowling Green, Va. Ne'eman was one of 10 hometown news Scout correspondents selected from among 850 to meet with President Bush at Fort A.P. Hill, the Army base hosting the event. The 10 Scouts were divided into two groups of five each and talked to the president backstage at the base arena.
It took three attempts before Bush met with the Scouts, whose national event was marred by the electrocution death of four adult Scout leaders July 25 when a metal pole at the center of a large dining tent touched power lines. On Wednesday, more than 300 people were treated for heat-related illness as the humidity rose and temperatures soared into the high 90s.
Ne'eman, who will enter his senior year at East Brunswick High School, said his group talked to Bush "about literacy and things related to that. We asked him questions about what Scouting meant to him."
The teen asked Bush about a book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," by Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. The president replied he had liked the book, saying, "Mr. Sharansky is an interesting man."
Regardless of one's political opinions, "It's still a great honor to meet the president. I was struck by the friendliness with which he spoke to everyone. It was nice of him to take time out of his schedule to talk to us," Ne'eman said.
He noted that the president said "one of the great things about Scouting is that it helps to instill core values and helps people find out what they believe in them. I asked him if Scouting had given him anything that he used as president, and he said it had because it is very important to know what you believe in. Otherwise, you would just do what someone else tells you to."
When asked what books he liked as a youngster, Bush replied that he did not get seriously interested in books until he started reading about history, Ne'eman said.
"I mentioned to him that my parents were both Israelis" and the president told Ne'eman he should tell his mother and father "that they have a friend in the White House," the teen recalled. His father and mother hold dual citizenship in Israel and the United States.
Ne'eman said that "in terms of foreign policy, I would be best described as a neoconservative" who "believes very strongly that America should work to help people everywhere to realize their inalienable rights. I very much admire policies that spread democracy."
The teen called himself a fiscal conservative who is concerned about large deficits but believes money should be spent on important things like health care and creating a safety net to insure a basic standard of living. Ne'eman considers himself a social liberal.
In his conversation with the president, "I did say I admired the sort of things Mr. Sharansky spoke about in his book, which mainly focused on how international community is best served by democratic societies as opposed to authoritarianism," Ne'eman noted.
Ne'eman interned at the United Nations in July, working with a nongovernmental organization called the World Information Transfer. At his high school, he is a member of the Model U.N. Team, president of the debate team and co-president of the five-member East Brunswick Federal Reserve Challenge Competition, an annual economics competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve.
Ne'eman is a Life Scout, working on his Eagle project. He is interested in a law career and, later in life, possibly entering public office.
He has Asperger's Disorder, a high-functioning form of autism, and has undertaken speaking engagements for the New Jersey Department of Education in Washington, D.C., as well as in New Jersey. Particularly directed at high school students, his discussions focus on special-education reform.
Among the other Central New Jersey Scouts at the Jamboree was Woodbridge resident Casey Jurgens, 14, of Avenel Troop 31, which sent 19 Scouts to the event. Casey is an assistant senior patrol leader.
Casey and three friends toured the various training stations at the base, including the monkey (rope) bridge, infantry, armory and field-artillery stations, which are among the 16 he had to visit to earn a national Jamboree badge. Scouts also got a badge just for participating in the jamboree.
Casey noted that Scouts attended from several countries and that he talked to those from other areas of the United States. "We pretty much traded patches all day," with boys from other councils, which, he said, "is a big thing for Scouts."
"We were in tents at night. Oh, gosh it was horrible. It was so hot, we just sat up writing letters to people," said Casey, who was relieved to return to his air-conditioned Avenel home. He will enter ninth grade at Woodbridge High School in the fall.