Re: Excess Scout Energy
dexter lovrien (drlovrie@WOLF.CO.NET)
Sun, 31 Mar 1996 14:29:16 -0600
Susan posts:
>I would not necessarily take this as a true story of something that
>actually happened outside the imagination of a Scout who is trying to get
attention and >e-mail.
It is the kind of stuff that went on in the 60s when I was a Tenderfoot. I
avoided the worst of it as I got away before I got tied up. I saw what
happened to my classmates as I hid in the woods. Lots of fun in itself when
you are a scared little kid on you first campout with a bunch of guys who's
ideals YOU believed in and thought they did too. I never figured out what I
was more scared of, the woods, the older "Scouts", the leaders who watched
and laughed, the fact that these "Scouts" repeated the oath and laws and
_this_ was how they treated us new guys or that my father might find out
what went on and pull me out of the troop. (Yeah, even after that nightmare
weekend, I still wanted to be a Scout, to believe all those grand ideals
Green Bar Bill and Boys Life promised, go figure)
As an adult, I found those Scouts and Scouters. Most of the troops have no
tolerance for this sort of thing. But I know it still happens. Even with
todays Youth Protection Program and two deep leadership, this and worse (use
your imagination..... yeah, that too) still goes on. We are _can_ stop it,
we MUST stop it. Many child abusers were abused in their youth. It is an
endless cycle UNLESS _we_ stop it.
The old "Boys will be boys" doesn't cut up anymore. The Navy found out with
"TAIL HOOK". This sort of behavior will get you canned almost anywhere.
There is no place in society for it so way allow it to be learned?
Olan Watkins may have something here,
>When I first got into Scouting as an adult with a Troop, the Scoutmaster had
>been an old Army Top Sergent, and he made all of us Assistant Scoutmaster
>rotate the duty of what he called fire watch. Any way, at least one adult
>ASM had to be up and awake all night long when we were out on a campout or
>at something like a Camporee. I always thought that the all night long gaurd
>duty was wasted effort, and when I took over the Troop a few years later I
>dropped the practice, but he may have had the right idea.
If thats what it takes to stop it, sign me up for a shift! I have been
alerted by summer camp staff to keep my ears open for such goings on with
the troop on the next site over. Camp staff knew of their annual fun and
games with new scouts and were giong to catch them red handed. That was
some years ago and I never heard how it came out. But I did not sleep at
night the whole week. _I_ wanted to help catch those sorry excuses for
Scouters/Scouts.
In any case, the "fire watch" Olan mentioned seems like a good idea.
Someone should be on guard to keep the raccoons, skunks and bears out of the
patrol kitchens! (and to make sure some tents don't "accidently" fall down
at night) ;^)
Thats my 2 cents worth and then some.
YIS
Dexter R. Lovrien
Austin, MN
e-mail to: drlovrie@wolf.co.net
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