Writing in Support of Ari Meisel For Princeton Board of Education
To the Editor:
I write this letter in support of Ari Meisel’s candidacy for the PPS Board of Education. And before I’m accused of bias, of course I’m biased! Ari happens to be my very wonderful brother-in-law.
And it’s from this perspective that I write, because others will be able to compile paragraphs full of his accomplishments, his involvements, his tireless work ethic, his living embodiment — as a father of five — of the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” Everyone knows this about him. In fact, everyone knows Ari, period. He and my sister moved their family to Princeton almost a year after my husband and I got here, and yet within weeks of arriving, he was the one introducing people to us. It’s his personality. He’s a compulsively friendly, roll-up-his-sleeves kind of guy who gets in there.
Do you ever fantasize about being related to the U.S. president? If you’re ever in trouble, being able to call that special number and say, “Help!” knowing if there’s anything that can be done you’ve reached the one person able to do it? My fear of authority aside, that’s how I feel about Ari. Maybe it’s the combination of his empathy for others mixed with his contempt for inefficiency and ineffectiveness that’s resulted in this person who you can call with a problem at any moment, night or day, and who will find you a solution. I don’t know that everyone is lucky enough to have someone like this in their lives. And yet here’s your chance.
We complain about a lack of transparency in the way our school district is run. We feel we’re dealing with some rusted piece of Soviet machinery, where the clang at the turn of every cog reverberates across the walls of a system not perhaps deliberately designed to be as impenetrable as possible, but which in practice feels that way; where we parents are left with questions that, all too often, aren’t or can’t be answered.
I smile at the idea of Ari showing up to his first meeting as member of the Board. I know from day one he’ll want to get out and try to fix the persisting problems in our district. He’ll never be satisfied with meetings and talk. He’s a doer. The problems at PPS are not of a philosophical nature. They are practical. On the phone the other day he was in despair, asking me if I realized how many children in our zip code are food insecure. How these very children could have access to breakfast and lunch at school, but don’t take advantage of it, for reasons too complicated to list here, but which he, as a Board member or not, will address. His background in real estate development, green building, entrepreneurship, even biohacking, make him eminently equipped to physically, practically, wholeheartedly tackle the very issues our district needs to confront, and soon!