Having grown up overseas, Scott Kleeb, sees the world from a variety of perspectives.

I was actually raised on a military base overseas. My family does come from Nebraska and it does shape… One, you experienced of having lived overseas on a military base the experience of America brought and the world as seen through somebody who is stationed overseas, to see the interaction between, you know, even just on the soccer field, the relationship that America does play with the rest of the world. Also, seeing the potential power that America has overseas and its ability to shape, you know, through diplomatic, cultural, political, economic means things to its benefit to a larger benefit of the United States and the world system. So it’s actually a remarkable experience. The Nebraska connection comes in with a cattle ranch that I worked on after I graduated from high school and then went to college and came back and worked on… Well, my family at Homestead, and it’s those older traditions, those things that I’ve learned, that I heard about for a long time and then learned about first hand myself. And there’s really, especially in the area of Nebraska where I’m from, there’s a real strong sense of community, it’s a very large concept. We drive about 50 miles to get groceries. So, community for us is a very big concept and it’s also shaped the way that I think about how each of us are at once individuals but also part of a larger system. A blizzard came through when I was working at the cattle ranch and our cattle were scattered for miles and our neighbor’s cattle were scattered fro miles, and the willingness of people to really bond together to help each other on the times of need that that’s a purveying sense of community where I’m from.

Recorded on: 8/13/08