Youths recount American Legion experience
Indelible images from Washington, D.C., still live in the memories of Taylor Heinecke and Eric Fulton:
A few words from President Bush, time spent with Sen. Conrad Burns, a gander at the likes of Sens. Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama, a sighting down the hallway as now-Chief Justice John Roberts was interviewed by national media.
The Flathead High School seniors spent a week in early August in the nation's capital. There, they represented Montana at the 60th annual session of Boys Nation, the American Legion's re-creation of U.S. government for tomorrow's leaders.
It was the first time in the state's history that both delegates hailed from Kalispell.
Fulton and Heinecke earned the honor when they were elected governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, of the Boys State session in Dillon this June. That distinction was last achieved by two Kalispell boys 34 years ago.
On Tuesday evening, American Legion Post 137 of Kalispell is inviting the seven Boys State participants from Kalispell, and those who sponsored them, to a dinner celebrating the year's success.
There, Andy Creighton, Jared Denton, Logan Hutchin, John Thiebes and Evan Scott will share their recollections of Boys State 2005.
Fulton and Heinecke will have a chance to recount their experiences both in Dillon and D.C.
"It was very cool," Heinecke said, "just with all the monuments we saw - the Washington Monument, Lincoln, Vietnam Veterans, World War II, Korean War."
"And we had a day to ourselves so we took the metro to the Pentagon and the Smithsonian," where they toured part of the American History museum, Fulton added.
They got a good chunk of time with Sen. Burns in his office then, when he had to leave for a gun-rights vote on the Senate floor, asked if they could tag along. Burns handed them Senate gallery passes and the boys took the underground magnetic railroad to the action.
A typical day put them through a couple two-hour-long Boys Nation sessions in which they conducted business and got an education.
Each signed on with one of the two political parties, Fulton with the Federalists and Heinecke with the Nationalists. Fulton also was named to head the session's Rules Committee.
One assignment for each Boys Nation participant was to bring a legislative bill dealing with a national issue that reasonably could be debated and voted upon. Heinecke's proposal to legalize marijuana was discussed but defeated, while Fulton's two bills providing for repatriation of Japanese troops and establishment of multinational Internet regulation never went up for a vote.
The docket was filled instead with bills discussing stem-cell research, the death penalty and other national issues, they said.
After listening to the debates and sharing quarters for the week at Marymount University with their fellow delegates, Fulton and Heinecke said they'll keep an eye out for any future appearances on the national political scene.
As a group, delegates toured the White House and, although they experienced tight security, were given access to some areas not generally included in public tours. They visited the Supreme Court building, only to discover a basketball court built above the high court's working chambers. They visited the State Department in the Truman Office Building.
When not in Boys Nation session, Fulton and Heinecke plunged into the heat and humidity of Washington in August, and experienced evidence of the nation's rich history.
Evenings were devoted, in part, to music from a military band, speeches that included a powerful talk by a Holocaust survivor, and a banquet address from the American Legion national commander.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com