Re: always and eagle/square knots
Settummanque, the blackeagle (waltoml@WKUVX1.WKU.EDU)
Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:21:10 CDT
Daniel T Berg <berg0449@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU> writes:
>On Mon, 30 Jan 1995, Michael Danko wrote:
>
>> What is the purpose of having Scouts over the age of (what is it 18?)
>> wear the square knots for certain achievements instead of wearing the
>> actual patches?
>Personally, being an Eagle of age 19, I go against the council and STILL
>wear the Eagle Scout Patch proudly. There are not many young scouts that
>know the Eagle Scout Square Knot, they DO know what the REAL EAGLE Scout
>patch is, and stands for. For that reason I will not wear the square
>knot, even though it IS AGAIN BSA POLICY
(whoo boy...Kathie's gonna have you for lunch, Dan! *laughter* While I
strongly agree with her (and I'm SURE you'll hear from her!) that when we
PERSONALLY decide to go against what the BSA has sat down, and
apparently given this some thought to, and wear ANYTHING ANYWHERE
(which is what you'll implying here), what's the use of having a
uniform? What's the use of having a guide or a standard for wearing
what we wear? ; I'm not as adamant about adhearing the "book" to the
shirt, and can appreciate *some* personal variation (after all, we ARE
humans, right?), but this is one area that I would have to agree with
Kathie on....read my comments below and you'll see why!)
Since 1962, there has been (count them) FIVE variations of the Eagle
Scout Badge. Not all of the them have the wording "Eagle Scout" or
"Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America" surrounding the patch. I
personally have two versions here at the office where the Eagle is
smaller than the present one being used.
While *some* Scouts know what the PRESENT Eagle Scout Badge looks
like, many more (as well as many others in the community) have NO
CLUE to what the Eagle Scout Badge looks like! Most know what the
medal looks like, but that's about it. Even less know what the actual
badge looks like, if you asked a good cross section.
Dan, the BSA don't want adults to look like Scouts. That's the entire
intent of NOT wearing the youth awards, be it the Eagle, the Arrow of
Light, the Ranger, Ace, or Quartermaster Awards, nor the Exploring
Acheivement Award. Those awards are designed for and should be worn
BY THE YOUTH MEMBERS OF THE MOVEMENT, IN ORDER TO AVIOD CONFUSION.
What confusion? Simple. Back in "them old days", the Eagle Scout
Badge could be earned by adults. Imagine some mother or father of a
new Scout, coming to your meeting and seeing that you have your Eagle
Scout badge centered on your shirt. The first question would not be
"are you an Eagle Scout", but more often or not "are you a member or a
leader of the Troop?"
There's an additional confusion. Since there's several versions of
the Eagle Scout Badge out there, some kid looking at YOUR shirt, then
looking at someone else's and seeing a DIFFERENT Eagle Badge, would
tend to make them think that there's TWO Eagle Scout awards out there.
This could be a *very sensitive issue* and could bring up things that
you *don't want to get into*, especially when perhaps one of the
Eagles is a younger Black or Hispanic man and the other is a older
White or Hispanic man. "Same program, different badges? What ELSE is
different?"
Finally, it becomes MORE important now that you don't wear anything on
your left pocket since female Scouters cannot wear anything there for
cosmetic and physical reasons. Nothing divides a unit moreso than
some stupid guy exerting his "macho-"I-have-it-and-you'll-never-will""
image onto everyone else in the unit.
This is a VERY SORE SPOT for many women in our program: yes, we all
know that only males can earn Eagle. But do you HAVE to "rub it in"?
The BSA has uniform guidelines only to make the program more
consistant no matter where you go and no matter who charteres the
unit. While there ARE some areas of "personal customization", the
rules for the placement of insignia is standard so that everyone will
be able to immediately recognize and view the Scout or Scouters'
current status in the movement and the acheivements that he or she has
received.
It was only recently (in the past ten to twelve years), that the BSA
"made" Eagle Scouts whom are professionals to wear the Eagle square
knot. Most of them didn't wear a thing on their shirts, which made
them look like new Scouters or worse, like Scouters that don't care
at all about the program!
The small red, white and blue square knot simply states it for anyone
to see...whenever I had to explain what's it for, I did it out of pride
and honor....I don't need to display the patch.
A *real* Eagle Scout NEVER has to display the badge.
Folks just know.
Settummanque!
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