Eamonn

Gunny2862 Think it was me who talked about splitting hairs. I have great respect for the people who are expert in their field. Maybe it's good that someone somewhere is telling the people in charge of high adventure activities that a safe program doesn't set the bar high enough? But.. A good many of our forum members are what I might call run of the mill Scouter's. Sure we when we plan an activity look at the "What if". We do our best to Be Prepared. We know that chances are when we are out doors that the Scouts in our charge are not going to be hit by a piece of space junk. On

While I'm not a great lover of hot-dogs there are a lot of people who really like them. The hot-dog meal when served in jail is very popular. When I was working with elderly people they just loved hot-dogs. So I'm not going to turn my nose up too much. Back when we had the old WB Boy Scout course, the menus were part of the syllabus, The menu listed hot-dogs for the first meal on Sunday night. In my book there is a time and a place for just about anything. Yes even pop-tarts! Of all the skills that a Lad will take away from having been a Scout the one he will more than lightly use

Can't help thinking that maybe we are splitting hairs? There are a lot of words and terms in use that maybe are not the best or the most appropriate, but are used and for the most part accepted and acceptable. Most of us are happy to clean the kitchen and accept that it's clean a hair splitter will say that it isn't clean till it has been sanitized. We go along with a kid being a "Bright kid". Without doing an IQ test. Lord knows that there is risk is just about everything we do and at times in things we fail to do. I might say that my home is safe, but might not have tested the batter

Dad was a very proud Irish man. He left Ireland after his Mother died, he father had gone before her. Things were tough in Ireland and he was on his way to Australia. I always thought it was strange that both my parents lived less then 12 miles from each other in Ireland, but never met until they were both in London. My Mum worked as a maid for a rich Irish doctor. Dad worked where there was work. At that time there was still a lot of discrimination against the Irish. Mum said that Australia was too far from Ireland and her parents, so she refused to go. After they married she qu

"Ages and Stages are mostly a cultural phenomenon," Have a friend who when dealing with someone who is being difficult will say: "They were frightened by a plumber when they were being potty trained." I think most of us might agree that adolescence, that time period between puberty and adulthood is a time when people going through it want to experiment and try new things. This need (If it is indeed a need?) Does cause reckless thinking and sometimes lack of consideration for consequences. I don't know but maybe way way back when humans were developing there might have been a need f

It happened at 10:30 on Saturday morning in July. I was welcomed into the ranks of parenthood. Soon after, I was handed this little person who was wearing a hat. He didn't seem to take much notice of me, even though I was so very interested in him. I counted his fingers and his toes, making sure that he had ten of each. About half way through my count of his left foot, I was hit with the fact that I was totally unprepared for what was to happen next, but I was aware that this next was going to last a very long time. He didn't come with any book of instructions. He just was there an

OK, I read it all. While it seems to me that the guy who wrote it has taken great pains to dispel what might be myths that have been taken as true. He hasn't done anything that would explain the cognitive thinking of teenagers and the teenage brain. Based on my own 100% non scientific findings. I know that kids do have Ages and Stages. I don't know how things like environment, social pressures, socioeconomic factors and other outside forces change things in the development of young people. I do tend to think that a lot of the stuff that experts like physiologists come up with can somet

Kinda think that all of us know and are aware that kids are not the same as adults. I'm not sure when a child starts knowing that some things are right while others are wrong. There is very often a big fuss when teenagers who are charged with some crimes are charged as adults. Why? I think many of us do hold to the idea that young people are not as accountable as older folks are. It might be interesting to look at young people in other countries and other cultures and see how they measure up? Does a young guy in certain parts of war torn Africa grow up faster than a spoiled brat from

Lisabob Just read your last post. It hurt. I don't like guns and don't own one. The likelihood of me shooting someone is very small. I'm not sure when a kid stops being a kid, but like you my son is my child and no matter how old he gets that is a fact that will never change. While I have never met your son. I'm going to guess that were he to walk toward me on a dark night? I might notice him and not feel any sort of a threat. I wish that I could put my hand on my heart and say that was also true if a young black youth were to do the same thing. Of course I don't harm or hurt e

It was and has never been my intention to in any way try and guess or second guess what happened that tragic night. Maybe that's not possible? For me, while of course the fact that someone ended up dead is truly tragic, this thread was more about looking at my feelings on race. I have many ex-Scouts who aren't white. We keep in contact, the fact that they are from Africa, Jamaica, India or else-where really has never mattered to me. I work fairly closely with two African-American men. One I like and get on with very well, the other I have very little time for. He just isn't a very nice

" it should drive you to continue with being aware of your surroundings and having a plan to follow if anything were to occur" Gunny2862 As you can imagine working where I do with the convicts all around being aware of the surroundings and what's going on is a must. - Kinda gives a real meaning to "Be Prepared". I think what is irking me about all of this is that I was happy thinking that I had my feelings about race all tied up, nice and neat. I liked to think that I didn't have any feelings of racism what so ever. Now? I'm not so sure. The details of what happened that night will

"And does anybody at all think that (all other conditions being equal) if the child had been white, and the shooter black, we'd even be talking about how the shooter hadn't been arrested yet, a month after the murder? I don't have an answer. I would hope that we can learn from all of this, rise up and become stronger. Ea

Peacock? Was a Cook-coo when I first took WB. I don't wear a uniform very often and don't wear my red wool jacket a lot. But on the back of the jacket I still wear the big Nordjamb patch from the 1975 World Jamboree. Does this qualify me as a Peacock? Ea.

Oh we of little faith! I've been around Scouts for a while and the one thing that I've learned is to expect the unexpected. Don't try and understand it. Just accept it, enjoy it and move on. Ea.

Does my feeling un-easy or me feeling fearful make me a racist? Ea.

I was going to post this in the Open Discussion area but thought maybe it should go here. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Trayvon Martin. No parents should ever have to suffer the loss of their son. I'm not sure what really happened that night. I'm not really sure why George Zimmerman felt that he needed to shoot this 17 year old black boy. It does seem that the local police in that area didn't do such a good job of investigating and communicating what happened and why it happened. My great hope is that now with so many different groups looking into what did happen jus

Lord knows that when it comes down to the requirement being the requirement, I'm a real pain in the neck. In my book you deserve a lot of praise and have earned my admiration, when you post: "I feel bad, especially because I don't think these boys have been given the experience they deserve." What I'm about to post might by many seem to be a cop out! But that is what it is. You can only be responsible for what you do. If another person (Leader) has signed off on the requirements as being met. Then you have to go with it. - You can't undo what has been done. You don't have to condon

I'm very much for a complete co-ed program. Starting in Cub Scouting and running all the way. But. I don't know if this will ever happen and I don't think it will be the end of the world or of Scouting if it doesn't happen. While I don't want to take away anything that being an Eagle Scout represents. I do at times think that we are guilty of maybe holding up the Eagle Scout rank as being more than it really is. It is to my mind a shame when a Sea Scout who has earned Quartermaster rank has to explain the rank by saying it is the "Sea Scout Eagle Scout rank". While I know that I hold a

I'm sorry Dean, I disagree about these being questions that are asked. I'm proud of my accomplishments, I'm proud of a lot of the things that I've done. This doesn't mean that I look down on others or play the one up man-ship game. I didn't post in the other thread. I did read most of what was posted. When it comes to looking down on others, which I think is a sad and wrong thing to do. I believe that most often in our organization it's the youth leaders, the people who work with the kids who are most guilty of looking down on the other volunteers who don't work with the Scouts. I h

While you do deserve a pat on the back and a well done. I do have to admit that I was always very uncomfortable with any sort of FOS goals. As District Chair. One of my duties was to meet with the SE each year and set the goals for the District. The District Goal. - That being how much we could get from the people who served on the District Committee. The Community Goal -How much we could get from the business community. The Family goal - How much we could get from the units. I seen all of this as being a load of you know what! I wanted to know how much he wanted from the Distric

Not trying to hijack. The other day I walked through the dish washing room in the jail during a meal service. The inmates who use the very big dish-washing machine have to spray each tray before it goes into the machine. The spray hits the trays and splashes back at them so they cover themselves with the white 50 gal. Garbage can liners. As ever I said the first thing that came into my head. I didn't make a lot of friends when I said that they looked like walking condoms! Oh well! Ea.

While I of course I don't know how things are dealt with in your area. I know that a District going cap in hand asking to buy used equipment and stuff would not see any funding being made available. When things like this happen, someone needs to step up to the plate and do the right thing. The right thing is that if someone owns a whatever call him or her and ask them to come and pick it up ASAP. If they don't pick it up offer to drop it off at their home. A lot of times them asking about items that are on "extended loan" has more to do with some sort of a power issue than the return of

I really don't like popcorn. I hate the smell of it and never eat the horrible stuff. I'm not in sales or marketing. But I do buy things that support a cause or an organization. Our local Elks sell good quality brooms. I have no idea what a good quality broom sells for but when we need a new broom I call the nice person from the Elks and hand over whatever it is she asks for. I'm happy with my new broom and life goes on. From a fund raising point of view the problem with brooms is that I don't need that many new brooms in a year. So of course sales of brooms, I'd guess are kinda sl

When I first became a Boy Scout back home in England before the word boy was taken away. We were allowed to wear a sheath knife as part of our uniform. Sadly some Boy Scouts were mugged and lost their knives to the muggers and the order came from above that knives as part of the uniform were no longer allowed. I thought I looked very dashing with my knife strapped to my side. Oh well! It's a good job that I have very sexy knees. Ea.

"Air Conditioned Eagle Encampment" Air conditioned or not, I find the very idea of an Eagle Encampment to be just wrong. Talk about advancement gone wild? Ea.