SCOUTMASTER'S MINUTE

There is nothing more influential in a child’s life than the moral power of quiet example. For children to take morality seriously, they must see adults take morality seriously.
– William J.Bennett
The Book of Virtues

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
– John Locke

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
– Cassius

Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
– Calvin Coolidge

You should always be careful when reading books about health Otherwise you might die of a misprint.
– Mark Twain

He who is waiting for something to turn up might start with his shirt sleeves
– Unknown

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
– Known

I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.
– Jonas Salk

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our stories are inextricably interwoven. What you do is part of my story; what I do is part of yours.
– Daniel Taylor

We never fail when we try to do our duty-- we always fail when we neglect to do it.
-- Baden-Powell, Rovering to Success

Joy cometh to him who servith, through his brother man, his father God.
-- Baden-Powell, Rovering to Success

The wild has its charms.
-- Baden-Powell, Lessons from the Varsity of Life

Courtesy and Politeness pays not so much for the pleasure it gives to him who receiveth it as for the happiness it gives to him that rendereth it.
-- Baden-Powell, Rovering to Success

Success

S ee your goal.
U nderstand the obstacles.
C lear your mind of doubt.
C reate a positive mental picture.
E mbrace the challenge.
S tay on track.
S how the world you can do it!

Let your ambition be not to see how much you can get out of work, but how much you can put into it.
-- Baden-Powell, Rovering to Success

We have all got to die some day; a few years more or less of our lives don’t much matter if by dying a year or two sooner than we should otherwise do from disease we can help to save the flag of our country from going under.
-- Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys

A Halfpenny in the Box
The great point about a knight was that he was always doing kindness or good turns to people. His idea was that everyone must die, but you should make up your mind that before your time comes you will do something good. Therefore, do it at once, for you never know when you will be going off.

So, with the Scouts, it has been made one of our laws that we do a good turn to somebody every day. It does not matter how small that a good turn may be, if it were only to help an old woman lift her bundle, or to guide a child across a crowded street, or to put a halfpenny in the poor box. Something good ought to be done each day of your life. Remember the knot in your necktie and on your Scout’s badge– they are reminders to you to do a good turn (daily). And do your good turn not only to your friends, but to strangers and even to your enemies.

– Robert Baden-Powell,
Scouting for Boys, Part IV

"The Dumbing Down..."
The 1929 "St. Valentine’s Day Massacre," which merits two mentions in the World Book Encyclopedia, consisted of seven gangsters being killed by four gunmen. Comparable violence, which might occur any weekend in Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles, has been redefined today as very nearly normal. The redefinition is not benign: "We are," as New York’s Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan puts it, "getting used to a log of behavior that is not good for us."

-William Raspberry,
Washington Post

The Neverending Story
Any love that lasts becomes a love story. A marriage, for example, is a shared story: the partners grow in love partly on the basis of shared memories, and partly on the conviction that they are on a journey together. In having children, they bring them into the story and introduce them to the characters -- aunts, uncles and grandparents -- who are already part of it. It is an expression of confidence that the story ought to be continued.

-William K. Kirkpatrick,
Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong

America's Spirit for Volunteerism
Just as the renowned French political commentator Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at what he called "The spirit of volunteerism in America" during a visit here early in the last century, so observers still marvel at the extent to which ordinary citizens by the tens of millions contribute their time, talent, toil, and sweat working for relief of the individual or improvement of the common good. By some estimates, almost half of all Americans older than their mid-teens regularly devote at least a few hours to working without pay for the benefit of others, whether in schools, hospitals, churches, civic organizations, emergency services, or a multitude of other endeavors. Their donated time mounts into the billions of hours every year.

- Norman Vincent Peale,
The American Character

Endurance

After the cheers have died and the stadium is empty,

After the headlines have been written,
and after you are back in the quiet of your own room
and the Super Bowl ring has been placed on the dresser;
and all the pomp and fanfare have faded,
the enduring things that are left are:

The dedication to excellence,
the dedication to victory,
and the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can do to make the world a better place in which to live.

- Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)
Professional Football Coach

Just a Chance

If I were president of a bank,
And owned a railroad too,
And had Aladdin’s lamp,
Do you know what I would do?

I’d wish to be a boy again
With patches on my pants,
A good ol’ fashioned appetite,
Some playmates, and a chance.

A chance to join a Boy Scout Troop
With leaders such as you;
Men who would give me of their best,
All upright, kind, and true.

To know what "on my honor" means,
To say "I’ll do my best,"
To learn to really "Be Prepared,"
Brave, clean, and all the rest.

To give all boys that kind of chance,
THAT is our chosen task,
Let’s give them fun the Scouting way;
Is that too much to ask?

So, ’til all boys have had that chance,
We haven’t done our best;
But when their wish is realized,
We’ll know we’ve passed our test.

For someday when I’m standing
Before the great white throne,
Where I can hear the angels sing
And see the sinners moan,

I’ll want no better advocate
To make my final plea
Than just some little boy who’ll say
"Gee, God, he sure helped me."

-- Author unknown
Submitted by James Rupert