As I did last year, tonight I was honored to serve as one of the six judges in the competition to select delegates to attend this year’s New Jersey Boys State. This year, there were eleven candidates (all recommended by their high school guidance counselors) competing to be among the five delegates that our American Legion Post will send to Boys State this summer.

Each boy had to select a question from the many that had been prepared in advance by the judges and placed into a hat. If the boy was not comfortable with his first choice, he was permitted to select another question. All the questions were open-ended and dealt with current events. Once a question was selected, the candidate had to face the judges and speak extemporaneously for up to two minutes.

It was made clear to the boys that there are no “right” answers. Rather, they were instructed that they would be judged on their speaking ability and the extent to which they addressed the question in a logical and persuasive way.

Not surprisingly, all the boys were nervous, but every one of them rose to the occasion. It was gratifying to see eleven American boys of all races doing their best to win a spot in a program dedicated to teaching them the fundamentals of local, county and state government. I could not help contrasting these boys with the sickening photograph in today’s newspaper of a Palestinian teenager wearing a suicide bomber’s vest. Clearly, we have it right, and they have it wrong.

Some things really are just that simple.