fgoodwin

My son went before his Tenderfoot BOR at the last troop meeting. For the lower ranks, our troop tradition has been to have older Scouts act as the review board for the younger Scouts; the board always includes at least one non-ASM adult. As part of each boy's "review", they are asked to recite the Scout Oath and Law; if they don't get them right, they are asked to repeat them until they do get it right. Now, I grant you that a boy should know the Scout Oath and Law by this time, but isn't this an example of retesting, which is prohibited? Also, I was standing in the back of the room, nowhere near my son and totally unseen by him, when his review came up. However, because I am an ASM, the advancement chairman asked me to leave the room. I complied because arguably, I wasn't supposed to be present. However, at the same time, another TF candidate was being reviewed by a board that included his older brother. Now, if my being in the room, quietly observing, and not coaching in any way was a problem, why isn't it a problem to have an older brother on a younger brother's BOR? I don't want to make trouble for this troop, because we are still relatively new (having crossed over last spring). But there are some things going on that don't seem right to me.

Lynda J writes:I am glad that YPT is required to be renewedI have never seen a National requirement, in writing, that YPT be renewed. Many Councils have a local policy, but those policies vary as to frequency of renewals. If you've seen a written requirement from National that YPT be renewed, please share.

The movie that features Rick Schroder and the Boy Scouts is called "14 Hours" and was shown on TNT on April 3. I didn't see it, but it was a made-for-TV feature apparently based on actual events:Turner Network Television tells the story of Memorial Hermann Hospital's efforts along with those of the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts of Ameirca and other municipal workers to safely evacuate more than 500 patients during Tropical Storm Allison.http://www.nursing.advanceweb.com/common/editorialsearch/Aviewer.aspx?AN=NW_05mar28_n8p32.html&AD=03-28-2005 http://tinyurl.com/9xvzw

Welcome to the Forum, aaron! Just because the troop doesn't wear uniforms, is no reason for you to stop wearing yours. There are very few cases in which a "Class A" uniform is inappropriate.

Bob is correct -- many people get confused about the purpose and intended audience for BALOO vs. Webelos Leader Outdoor Training (WLOT). By the way there is a new syllabus out and the course has been renamed: Outdoor Leader Skills for Webelos Leaders. It won't be long until folks start referring to it as OWL.

Hourman: welcome to the Forums -- and I'm glad you and your wife made the decision to join -- I hope you agree it was the right choice for your son. I wish more who felt as you did would think of their child first and not let their personal politics deny their son a wonderful opportunity. Getting back to the question: why do you think membership in Scouts Canada is declining even faster than BSA?

OK girls, I hate to break up the gab-fest -- but do any of you actually have anything that proves (or refutes) the assertion that BSA's membership declines can be attributed to its membership policies?

Bob, I'm sure you can read the article just as well as I can quote it; here's the immediately preceding paragraph:Anderson, a 38-year-old woodworker from Logan, Utah, said the Alaska group arrived a little after noon July 25 and began setting up at the top of the sloping campsite. He said his troop had just about finished pitching all of its tents and that the Alaskans had placed their sleeping tents on the perimeter of an open area where two larger, white tents were to be placed.I won't go into the differences between your eyewitness' account and the account of the eyewitness interviewed for this article. But many news media carried the story that the contractors put up the first tent with no difficulty, but had problems with the second -- again, the details are all in the article I referenced. So, as far as I can tell, nobody is making stuff up or spreading rumours or deliberately trying to make BSA look bad.

The tent contractors hired by the Alaskans seemed to erect the first of the two large tents, at the top of the hill, without much trouble, he said. "The second one seemed to go a little slower than the first." http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784292967 http://tinyurl.com/7gt5y

American Red Cross and Homeland Security Co-Sponsor National Preparedness Month 2005 http://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/0,1077,0_314_4278,00.html Nationwide Effort to Encourage Americans to Prepare for Emergencies WASHINGTON, Thursday, June 09, 2005 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross today announced they will co-sponsor National Preparedness Month 2005, a nationwide effort held this September to encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. The goal of National Preparedness Month is to increase public awareness about the importance of preparing for emergencies and to encourage individuals to take action. No community is truly prepared for a disaster until every individual, family and household takes personal responsibility for preparedness, said American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans. Red Cross chapters across the country are helping people learn how to create a family disaster plan so that each person knows what to do, where to go, and how to contact loved ones. Throughout September, Homeland Security and the American Red Cross will work with local, state and federal government organizations and the private sector to highlight the importance of public emergency preparedness. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Representatives Christopher Cox (R-CA) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) have agreed to serve as Congressional Co-Chairs of National Preparedness Month 2005. In addition, more than 125 national organizations (see attached listing) have already joined the National Preparedness Month Coalition, which will distribute emergency preparedness information, host events and sponsor activities across the country. We are pleased to have the American Red Cross, which has long been a leader in emergency preparedness and response, co-sponsor National Preparedness Month 2005, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The commitment of the American Red Cross and the members of National Preparedness Month Coalition are integral as we work to encourage all Americans to prepare for emergencies. As leaders in their communities, these organizations will help spread life saving information and move the entire nation toward a greater state of preparedness. National Preparedness Month will provide Americans with a variety of opportunities to learn more about preparing for emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist threats. Events, activities, and messages across the nation will encourage individuals to get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, be informed about different threats and get involved in preparing their communities. The initiative will officially launch with a public emergency preparedness fair on September 1, 2005 at Union Station in Washington, D.C. During the event individuals will receive preparedness information and materials and learn about training opportunities. This will be the second annual National Preparedness Month. During the first National Preparedness Month, held in September 2004, a coalition of more than 80 organizations [including BSA] and all 56 states and territories held hundreds of events and activities across the nation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet-level federal agency, promotes public emergency preparedness through the Ready campaign and Citizen Corps. Ready is a national public service advertising campaign produced by the Advertising Council in partnership with Homeland Security that is designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to potential terrorist attacks and other emergencies. Citizen Corps, Homeland Securitys grassroots program, localizes Readys preparedness messages and provides local opportunities for citizens to get emergency response training; participate in community exercises; and volunteer to support local emergency responders. Governed by volunteers and supported by community donations, the American Red Cross is a nationwide network of nearly 900 locally supported chapters dedicated to saving lives and helping people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Led by one million volunteers and 35,000 employees, the Red Cross annually mobilizes relief to families affected by some 70,000 disasters, trains more than 15 million people in lifesaving skills and keeps U.S. military families connected worldwide. The Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood and blood products to more than 3,000 hospitals across the nation and also assists victims of international disasters and conflicts at locations worldwide. The American Red Cross is not a government agency. National Preparedness Month 2005 is a nationwide effort co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in the homes, businesses and schools. Any event or activity conducted during National Preparedness Month is purely voluntary, and Homeland Security is not financially obligated to any National Preparedness Month Coalition Member. For more information or to become a National Preparedness Month Coalition Member visit www.Ready.gov

NJCS: With all due respect, where did I complain about this article? As johndaigler has said in other threads, how about we focus more on the article itself and less on the poster? YiS, Fred G.

Business tied to Scouts probe closes http://www.newsvirginian.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNV/MGArticle/WNV_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784699272 http://tinyurl.com/7rg26 By MICHAEL L. OWENS News Virginian Staff Writer Saturday, August 27, 2005 A Fishersville company has closed for business just weeks after falling under the microscope of two federal investigations into the accidental electrocutions of four Boy Scout leaders. Tents & Events, located in the Ivy Ridge Industrial Park, shut its doors sometime last month, owner Brett Hayes confirmed Friday. The company supplied some of the tents used during the National Boy Scout Jamboree that kicked off late July at Fort A.P. Hill. Federal eyes focused on the company after four adult scout leaders apparently were electrocuted while helping Tents & Events contractors pitch a tent under a power line. The two injured contractors have not been identified. One remained hospitalized in the burn unit at VCU Medical Center earlier this month, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report. Another contractor had been treated and released. Hayes confirmed that Tents & Events, a division of RentQuick.com, closed last month, but he refused to disclose why. Im really not at liberty to say, he said. Tents & Events business service license, filed under RentQuick.com, remains valid, according to the Augusta County Commissioner of the Revenue Office. Mike Harman, the Richmond-based liability attorney representing Tents & Events, could not be reached for comment Friday. A secretary said he was on vacation in the Shenandoah Valley. Looking into the electrocution is the Army Criminal Investigation Command and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is currently investigating and we dont comment on open investigations, said spokeswoman Leni Fortson. I can confirm that OSHA did not shut [Tents & Events] down. Army investigators could not be reached for comment. Contact Michael L. Owens at 932-3563 or mowens@newsvirginian.com

Holy merit badge! Divine retribution? http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail.asp?id=19260 If God hates gays, why do his harshest punishmentselectrocutions, heat waves, hurricanesseem to be directed at antigay bigots? The Boy Scouts should take note. By Karel I remember it vividly. It was very early in the morning for me, around 6. My friend Don Hobkirk called to see if I was up and already on my way to the radio station. I asked why, and he said to turn on CNN. I did, and I saw one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center burning. They said a plane had hit it. I got up and started to get dressed, knowing I would be called to my station to go on the air. I called my good friend Larry Flick in New York City. He worked at Billboard back then, in a high-rise. While we were on the phone, another plane hit the trade center. I told him to get home. We hung up. There was a lot that happened in the aftermath of 9/11. People began to ask, Why? And then Jerry Falwell told them, the answer was obvious. It was the fault of abortionists and gay people. Well, of course it was. After all, so many of the 19 terrorists were gaynot! I sat back and listened. Soon, with just a little research, I found that Falwell was indeed cracked but not alone. Gay people have been blamed for hurricanes destroying coastlines, for earthquakesin fact, for almost every major disaster, it would appear. Then theres the moral decay brought about by obviously gay subversive tools like SpongeBob, Tinky Winky, and that rabbit on PBS. Absurd, you say? Well, yes, but lets take a minute to apply that thinking to current events. God hates Boy Scouts. It couldnt be clearer. God hates the Scouts policy of discrimination against gays. Thats right, God is pro-gay, and he/she/it is letting that be known, beginning with some good ol fashioned smiting of those who are blatantly going against his laws and discriminating against his creation, gay men. The evidence? Just look at the 2005 Boy Scout Jamboree, a 10-day event held in Virginia for tens of thousands of Boy Scouts and their leaders. Now, remember, this is the same organization that blatantly said no homos, homos are bad, homos will influence our children or worse, attack them. And while I support their right as a private religious-based organization to keep homos out (thats another editorial), Im not God. And it appears God is angry. First came the tragic death of four scout leaders, setting up a dining tent. By all accounts, it was biblical carnage at its best. Scouts watched as a metal pole at the center of the large, white tent touched power lines, electrocuting four adult leaders and injuring others. According to accounts published in the July 29 Guardian Unlimited, Screams rang out as the tent caught fire and the men burned. Thats downright Old Testament. Then, within a day or two, record heat and humidity sent scores of scouts to the hospital. Yes, once the deaths occurred and the scouts decided to press onward, the weather turned against them and oppressive heat and humidity hospitalized many and caused almost 300 scouts to seek treatment. From the Guardian Unlimited again, quoting 15-year-old scout Jeremy Loftness of Denver: Yesterday was ridiculous. I, myself, saw 50 people either passed out or being carried away. In fact, the weather was being used as a shield, an impenetrable barrier to keep away another entity with which God is obviously upset, President Bush. He has been scheduled twice to speak to the Boy Scouts at the Jamboree, and twice the weather, a traditional act of God, has dissuaded him. Outrageous? Preposterous? No more than any claims made against gays by good, God-fearing men of the cloth. How dare I, a gay personand therefore by many standards a godless heathenmake such a claim? Well, why not? The evidence certainly is mounting in my favor. As this column was being written, another act of God against the Boy Scouts was reported by AP: Lightning struck a group of scouts gathered in Sequoia National Park in California, killing a scout leader and critically injuring a 13-year-old. More Old Testament smiting. Get the message? Why wouldnt God do this? While under the law the Boy Scout stance on gays may be justifiable, socially, morally, its just plain wrong. They do it in Gods name, so maybe God is just sick and tired of people doing things in his/her/its name. Take Florida, for instance. God obviously hates Florida. This year alone, nature, and thus, under many beliefs, God, has sent storms early and fast right into the peninsula that has caused so many problems. Perhaps God was mad about Terri Schiavo and how people purporting to be his followers created such a terrible debacle, right down to that annoying little friar in the Frangelico liquor outfit constantly telling us how Terri was alive, aware. (Sorry, Brother, she never was.) Perhaps God was mad at Senator DeLay for his God delivered us Terri comments. Lets be real, God had turned half this girls brain to liquid, seen to it that she was blind, and was all ready to take her up to heaven and then Bushs brother and Terris parents and a bevy of religious zealots intervened and kept her body alive at all costs and against her and her husbands wishes. Well, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. So bam! Take that hurricane, Florida! Bam! Have all this rain! Bam! Winds! Bam! A tornado in Miami! Its right out of an Irwin Allen film. And this was nothing compared with last year. Four massive hurricanes in less than two months. It was an election year, you see, and Florida had really made God mad with the 2000 debacle, so he was trying to send them a message to get it right in 2004. They didnt listen. So bam! They got it again. Maybe the Christians are on to something. Maybe God is angry, and smiting things left and right. But maybe the right-wingnuts are not picking up on the real reasons: Maybe its not gay people the Omnipotent is after, maybe its not we who are just living our lives the way the Almighty made us (if you believe in that sort of thing). Maybe instead its those people who are calling us, his handiwork, somehow less than human, ungodly, unholy. Who is man to call another man less than godly? Because while man can make a mess, only God can make a homo. And God likes it that way. After all, Massachusetts has legalized same-sex marriage, and God has kept most natural disasters away from that state. Nor has he destroyed Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries that allow same-sex marriage or something close to it. When was the last time you heard of an act of God harming gay-friendly New Zealand, for instance? So, Boy Scouts, if I were you, Id be seriously looking at policies you may have as a group that are upsetting to God. Who am I to speak for God? Well, Im just as qualified as any of those who say God attacks cities or states for their pro-gay stance or as some sort of divine signal of his disapproval. After all, Im ordained. I am. I am an official member of the clergy, ordained by World Christian Ministries. And it only cost me $80 and some time on the Internet. They never even asked if I believed in God. Heres the thing: Speaking for God and believing in him are two separate things altogether. Doing Gods work versus his biddingagain, separate. There are many who do Gods work. They are those who help their fellow humans instead of dividing them. They are those who give of themselves selflessly, to everyone, not just to people who believe the way they do. They are people who accept all of Gods creations, not just the ones that ideologically or biologically fit some mold of what is normal. They are ones who would never waver from their own beliefs but would never legislate them either. Yes it seems speaking for God and truly believing in him never, ever shall meet. I dont believe in God as written. Im one of the 5% of people in the United States brave (or stupid) enough to say that, because there is a lot of societal prejudice against those who dont associate with any religion or belief. But it doesnt take a devout follower to see that if there is a God, hes pissed. At the Boy Scouts. At Florida and, oh yes, Indonesia. In the United States recently weve had record heat waves killing people in our cities, flooding, lightning striking people, tornadosacts of biblical destruction. And never in West Hollywood. Never in Chelsea. Never in the Castro. Usually in the Bible Belt, in the red states, in places where bigots flourish. Even the disease allegedly sent to destroy homosexuals, AIDS, has now killed more nongay people worldwide than gay people. Its official. God hates bigots and is making bigoted America pay. If it keeps up, gay meccas could become Noahs Arks of sorts, because it would appear those are the only areas the divine is leaving alone. (Key West may be the exception, but it has the unfortunate fate of being part of Florida, and God, as we know from the Old Testament, has no qualms about taking out a few thousand bystanders when smiting the wicked.) Cities with big gay centers are flourishing while places where they hang homos on fence posts are dwindling economically and socially. Even the climate in many of those places is rebelling. So, devout, berconservative Christians, take a note from one of your own hymns: God is trying to tell you something. It sounds a lot like, Let my people go. Give my people equality, all of them. Or else. If this keeps up, it might be enough to convince even this nonbeliever.

Is this it? http://www.ucomics.com/clearbluewater/2005/08/26/ If so, it starts here: http://www.ucomics.com/clearbluewater/2005/08/25/ Thanx for the lead -- can't wait to see the next one . . .

Someone sent me a direct link to the Dennis the Menace comic: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/comics/king.htm?name=Dennis_The_Menace http://tinyurl.com/7kgq7 If you read this after Aug 26, enter that date in the archive box (only good for two weeks).

Yes, I have "Bushwhacked". It was OK, I suppose. Definitely better than "Father and Scout", a made-for-TV movie with Bob Saget (which I also have). Slightly better than "F&S" was "Scout's Honor", another made-for-TV effort with Gary Coleman and Katherine Helmond. I haven't seen it on DVD -- I bought a used VHS tape on ebay. It's about a Cub Scout Pack and it does a great job with the uniforms, leading to me to believe they had the cooperation of the BSA when they made it.

I have a copy of this on DVD. I agree it is awful, and would not recommend it to anyone. I collect Scouting-related movies which is why I bought this in the first place.

In today's comics (Fri Aug 26): Dennis the Menace (in Scout uniform) is at the door of an unknown adult, (probably Mrs. Wilson). He asks: "I'm supposed to do a good deed daily. Do you have any cookies that you need getting rid of?" I can't find a link to an online copy of the comic, so check it out in your local paper.

Nick: I've heard the Lex is a blast. Another great overnighter is NASA. Like I said, I'm no uniform Nazi -- I would hardly pull a kid over and inspect a temporary patch just to verify it was BSA-issue. I've seen the Lex patch -- the one I saw had a rather unusual shape, not the typical round or rectangular patch. Wearing one of those oddball shapes might attract attention, but if it does, remind the busy-body that a Scout is courteous and invite them to butt-out!

Our View: Scouts mirror good of U.S. http://archive.nwherald.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/nwh/archive/2005/July/23/Opinion/56539.xml http://tinyurl.com/baa83 Few youth events can match the National Scout Jamboree, where boys and leaders have fun, learn new skills and make new friends. But the event is under fire by civil libertarians, who are suing it over God - and winning. Boy Scouts of America does not quibble about God's place in the organization. A Scout promises to "do my duty to God and my country" and that he will be faithful in his religious duties. Scouts' relationship with God never fails to get them in trouble with organizations that define the First Amendment's separation of church and state dogmatically. Federal Judge Blanche Manning of the U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled earlier this month that the Defense Department no longer can spend money on Scouting. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims that Scouting becomes a religion through the belief in God. We disagree in the spirit of the Scouting. Scouting defines God broadly as "the ruling and leading power in the universe." Scout troops include people of many faiths, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. Boy Scouts of America has had a working relationship with the Defense Department and military since the 1930s. The department spends up to $8 million to help stage the National Scout Jamboree, a meeting held every four years at an Army base in Virginia. About 40,000 Scouters will meet for 10 days, beginning Monday. Manning's ruling does not affect this year's jamboree but will cut government funding for the next jamboree if it stands. No doubt the case will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Government support of Scouting does not establish religion. Federal funding helps a private national organization further its goals of devel-oping boys into men of integrity. Religion is woven tightly into the fabric of the United States. Scouting does not promote a religion, but requires its members to be true to God. Scout meetings are not Sunday schools, and weekend camping trips are not tent revivals. God is as much a part of the fabric of Scouting as God is of the United States. Scouts mirror that which is good in America. Published July 23, 2005

A big, clueless Boy Scout http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2005-08-25/essay.asp For Bush, its all one big jamboree By Alison Rood The photograph in the newspaper showed George W. Bush standing at a podium in Bowling Green, Va., on July 31, addressing approximately 50,000 Boy Scouts at their National Scout Jamboree. He was paying tribute to the four Scout leaders who were electrocuted when a metal pole in their dining tent touched power lines. He dished out the usual clichs about patriotism and community and military service. He told the boys they honored the dead leaders by following the scouting ideals their leaders stood for. He used the words character, kindness and models of good citizenship. In the photograph, hordes of Scouts in green fatigue uniforms were cheering wildly. The whole thing made me slightly ill. Id been vacationing in Washington, D.C., and part of Virginia two weeks before that speech, and I got an eyeful of Boy Scouts wearing jamboree T-shirts, obviously exploring the nations capital before heading off to their big blowout. I watched them get admonished by security guards at the Lincoln Memorial when they climbed on structures where they werent allowed. I saw them hurtle through crowds at the National Air and Space Museum with no regard for the people they almost knocked down. And, when I stood at John F. Kennedys grave at Arlington National Cemetery, I observed a large group of them acting like they were on a field trip to Disneyland instead of in a graveyard filled with dead soldiers. Im sure everyone reading this who has a well-mannered Scout in the family will take offense at what I just wrote, but Im only reporting my personal experience. I saw a lot of those jamboree-bound boys, their shirts covered with so much bling commemorating their many accomplishments, behaving more like disrespectful goofballs than model citizens. Monuments to those who died in battle loomed everywhere, but the Scouts seemed oblivious to the serious nature of war and death. Interesting that Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld all are former Boy Scouts with no reason to comprehend a war monument, either: Bushs highly questionable hitch in the Texas Air National Guard kept him out of Vietnam, and Cheney avoided the same war with five deferments--four because he was a student and one because he was a father. Rumsfeld served in the Navy during the mid-1950s, but as secretary of defense, he didnt have the common decency to issue hand-signed sympathy notes to the families of Americans killed in Iraq until someone gave him a wakeup call. I couldnt help noticing, too, that the 2005 Scout jamboree took place at Fort A.P. Hill, an Army base in Virginia, and that the pep talk Bush gave to the crowd of uniformed, flag-waving adolescents whose leaders had been electrocuted seemed a lot like one of his speeches to war-weary troops whove watched their comrades die in Iraq. Bushs spiel on patriotism, duty and honorable death was as canned as the school report one of those goofy Scouts undoubtedly will write on the topic What the National War Monuments Meant to Me. Then again, maybe Bush thought he was at a military recruitment drive. This was my first trip to Washington, D.C., so I had no idea that most of our hallowed shrines pay homage to those who died on the battlefield, from the Civil War to World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. Even many of the displays in the Air and Space Museum were devoted to war. And while I was humbled by the sacrifice of so much life, and in particular understood the significance of the Allied effort in World War II, the realization that war and its grim results are the themes of our more famous monuments was depressing. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall was devastating proof that those in power can make decisions that cause a horrifying number of men and women to die. The deaths are duly noted on plaques, walls and statues and accompanied by suitable words from distinguished statesmen about the bravery of the dead. Flags wave above the memorials to the deceased to remind us that its patriotic to give our lives in war. In the midst of all that, the tour buses come and go, people snap pictures, and souvenir stands peddle postcards and memorabilia. Families wolf down ice-cream bars, bands of teenagers put wrestling moves on each other, and little kids look around for the nearest face-painting booth. Someone plops down on a bench and complains about the blister on her foot. In Arlington National Cemetery, I stared at the acres of immaculate white markers, and it had the same effect on me as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall: visible, mind-numbing evidence that an insane number of people die in wars. Some tourists--a lot of them, really--were able to walk past the graves in Arlington and along the Vietnam wall and still chat and laugh in a normal fashion, as if they were just strolling through a pretty park. But I couldnt stop thinking about war and death and what its all supposed to mean in terms of patriotism. I couldnt bring myself to buy a single souvenir. A group of Boy Scouts clustered noisily around John F. Kennedys grave, disrupting the otherwise sober atmosphere as they jostled one another and grinned in front of the eternal flame while someone took a picture. It was like watching Bush posing in his flight suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier with that silly grin on his face. At that point, I decided Id had about all I could stand of Washington, D.C. As we left Arlington, I happened to see a squirrel sitting quietly on a soldiers grave eating a nut. It was the first thing all day that made sense to me. When Bush addressed the Boy Scouts in Bowling Green, he was talking to kids who were too busy goofing off at the Lincoln Memorial to bother reading the Gettysburg Address. And what about Bush? Has he checked out any of the memorials in his neighborhood lately? Has he bothered to take a good hard look at the Vietnam wall as he continues his mission in Iraq? Or is he still just a big, clueless Boy Scout himself? But goofy, disrespectful Boy Scouts like the ones I observed in Washington, D.C., are the perfect audience for George Bush. The predominantly white, anti-gay, churchgoing boys already feel the thrill of putting on a uniform, moving up the ranks and earning medals. Theyve got a long way to go before theres any need for them to realize what a war memorial is really all about, but theyre heading in the right direction.

AHGM: You're not alone. Its not unusual for some who favor "choice" in one context (e.g., pro-abortion) to also oppose "choice" in other contexts (e.g., school vouchers). It all depends on whose ox is being gored. Anyway, welcome to the Forums!

Ziglar also hosts the Baptist Scouting tape ("Baptists and Scouting: Building Values Together", 1998) available from the Relationships Division. He does a great job on it. Sorry, I don't have a bin number, but I'm pretty sure it is available to Councils at no charge. Your local Relationships Committee may have one.

Trev asks:Can Scouts and Scouters wear patches that are not issued by BSA? For example, state park patches that may be earned by completing certain requirements.I'm no uniform Nazi, but I can tell you what the Cub Scout Leader Book has to say:Badges awarded by other organizations may not be worn on the official uniform with the exceptions of the Historic Trails Award and religious emblems.Ref: Cub Scout Leader Book, p8-4 (2001 edition)

SP: I don't like "Class A" and "Class B" terminology either, but everybody uses them because they are a convenient shorthand. So will I, despite my concerns. aaron: My son's troop uses Class As for all meetings, but they have a policy that during the summer months, Class Bs are the uniform of the day. Makes for a nice compromise.