fgoodwin

Sally Turner, a retired Carlisle mother, said she picked up the booklet at a table at Brookline High School set up by Fenway Community Health. ``I was quite horrified they were promoting homosexuality all the way down to the youngest grades,'' she said. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=83610

DN: I doubt if GLSEN would agree with your characterization of them as an extremist group. Setting aside the issue of whether one can generalize from one or two examples, the fact remains, a generally recognized gay-advocacy group is spreading pro-gay literature to middle and high-school age boys, with addresses and recommendations to visit various gay bars in the Boston area. I close by noting that you don't refute the facts about what GLSEN did in Boston, or the contents of the booklet they distributed.

DN: "Godwin's Law"

DugN complains that NAMBLA doesn't represent typical or average homosexuals; that's a common reply, but in fact, I never made that claim. He says boys are no more at risk of abuse from homosexuals than they are from teachers, coaches or baby-sitters. I then pointed out a key difference is that teachers, coaches and baby-sitters are not organizing to seduce boys, as homosexual pederasts have done in the form of NAMBLA. So, ignore NAMBLA if you want. But the following cannot be so easily ignored. GLSEN is distributing a pornographic "how-to" guide to middle-school and high-school age youth in Massachusetts: (PM Fgoodwin for the link) I looked at the contents of the book itself (CAUTION: VERY GRAPHIC MATERIAL): (PM Fgoodwin for the link) (PM Fgoodwin for the link) (I apologize for posting a direct link to this, but I have to to let others look and decide for themselves what the gay-lobby is up to) The instructions and pictures are graphic enough -- but the question I have for the pro-gay crowd is: Why give a middle-school boy a list of gay bars? Some comments reads: "young guys and those who like young guys"; "sex-charged late at night"; "porn on the television"; "the old, the young"; etc. I ask you: if the purpose of this book isn't to bring "chickens" to the "chicken-hawks", then what's it for? Please explain to me why an alleged "educational piece" needs to include this info? And then please explain to me how this doesn't represent mainstream gays, but only a fringe like NAMBLA? I think this is clear evidence of the homosexual agenda, and why we need to keep them as far away from our boys as possible. Again, I apologize to the group for the graphic nature of the material cited above. But if it causes you any concern, you might ask yourself, why in the world was GLSEN allowed to distribute this material in the first place? (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

DN: CM's scenarios are not moot -- they are very relevant. OTOH, your scenarios are moot and irrelevant, for one reason: NAMBLA. I don't see teachers, coaches or babysitters organizing in an effort to seduce teen-age boys. But homosexual, pederast men are doing just that; that's the whole reason for NAMBLA's existence. The nay-sayers can scream all they want that "pederast" "homosexual" but the plain fact is, all the pederasts on the NAMBLA webpage identify themselves as homosexuals, so I would say that "testimony" is a bit more credible than that of the nay-sayers.(This message has been edited by fgoodwin)

May 16 is the birthday of James E. West: http://www.scouter.com/features/0026.asp The founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 was the establishment of the National organization. It opened the door to fun and learning in the outdoors to thousands of American boys. It's founding, however, did not guarantee that the organization would survive. Certainly, Baden-Powell had supplied the basics for Scouting in America along with Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone. Seton and Beard brought emphasis on the Native American and American frontiersman influences in outdoor activities of American Scouts. While all of this was fun, interesting and exciting, it did not focus on the successful management necessary to sustain and grow the organization. Into this mix came a man who was not an outdoorsman, who, in fact, had spent his youth in an orphanage and who had difficulty even walking because of a hip deteriorated from tuberculosis. James E. West's childhood difficulties had built him into a strong determined man. After earning his law degree he became an activist for children. As a volunteer, he worked to provide safe, clean places for children to play, helped thousands of children find foster homes, and removed troubled youth from adult courts by helping establish the first juvenile court. West did not welcome the job of Chief Scout Executive and only intended to serve for six months. A demanding businessman, West methodically managed the organization according to the bottom line. He knew that the very survival of the Boy Scouts of America depended on a strong organization that could help itself and sustain itself through tough periods of growth. He understood that children could not benefit if the organization could not survive. Seton and Beard found West talented, but obstinate and unyielding. They believed the boys must be the first and only consideration. They also believed he knew little of the benefits of the outdoors, didn't understand their program, didn't understand boys, and lacked the intended vision of the BSA. His strong feelings and many conflicts with West led Seton to resign from the organization in 1915. West and Beard remained at odds in philosophy, but continued to work together and shape the BSA for years to come. James West proved to be just what the BSA needed to make it a viable, accepted national organization. At age 34, he was the youngest of the founding fathers. His ability to keep the organization focused and growing kept him in that position for 30 years. During that time he established SCOUTING MAGAZINE and was the editor of BOYS LIFE for over 20 years. In 1921 he allowed an experimental Order of the Arrow program to be established nationally. It would take almost 30 years for it to become an official part of the Scouting program. In 1929, together with William Hillcourt, he wrote THE SCOUT JAMBOREE BOOK: American Scouts at the 3rd World Jamboree. In 1933, they wrote another book about the 4th World Jamboree. In his comments about the closing ceremony (CHAPTER XI-IN WHICH WE CLOSE THE FOURTH WORLD JAMBOREE AND LIGHT OUR LAST FIRE), West's description of those voices can touch the hearts of Scout and Scouters today: ". . .a roar arose from the gathering. Each Scout in his own language yelled the key-word of the jamboree: 'Brother!' It rose high, spread across the arena, came back as a tremendous echo: 'Brother! Bruder! Frere! Broder! Testvor!'" Today James E. West is remembered and celebrated as he lived. This child-welfare advocate who knew the importance of structure and support for an organization's longevity and growth, was honored by the BSA through the establishment of an award in his name. In 1993 the James E. West Fellowship Award was established to recognize major contributors to Council endowment trust funds. In August of 1999, the Finance Support Division of the BSA is holding the first of a new type of donor seminar. James E. West Week will take place at the Philmont Training Center from August 9-13. Session topics will feature estate and trust planning. On May 16 Scouting celebrates the birthday of James West, born on that date in 1876. Perhaps, those of us who have had the privilege of volunteering our time to work with the youth of America through the programs of the BSA, should pause with thanks and in memory of this man who showed, from the beginning, the necessity of Unit fundraisers and Friends Of Scouting(FOS) campaigns. Maybe, if only for a moment, we can show a hint of compassion to those professionals we sometimes see as "out of touch" with the grassroots, and try to understand how important is their task of providing the support necessary to continue the program we love so much.

From a fellow Scouter. This announces a commercial labeling service -- if you think of this message as spam, please ignore this item and forgive me. Neither she nor I have any financial interest in this company -- I simply post this message as potentially a useful service for Scouters with kids: ================= Fellow Scouters: If you have kids going to summer camp, Jamboree, church mission trips, etc., you may want to consider purchasing iron-on name tags for your kids' clothing and personal possessions. This company has received positive feedback on their products and also offers a scout discount. http://www.identifind.com/ Kelly ================= [Fred talking] They accept checks and Paypal, but not credit card. Kelly also added her son's Troop # on his "name" line. She ordered the 4-line labels, but she did not include a street address. Instead, she included her email address, as follows: Name, unit City, state Phone number Email address This looks like a great service to me, and worth checking out.

Snake Eater asks: "Let's ask ourselves why homosexuals want to have access to other people's children." Good question -- I'll let a homosexual answer it himself: ================= http://216.220.97.17/pederasty.htm Pederasty and Homosexuality by David Thorstad Pederasty - that is, love between a man and a youth of 12 to 18 years of age - say middle-class homosexuals, lesbians, and feminists, has nothing to do with gay liberation. Some go so far as to claim, absurdly, that it is a heterosexual phenomenon, or even "sexual abuse." What a travesty! Pederasty is the main form that male homosexuality has acquired throughout Western civilization - and not only in the West! Pederasty is inseparable from the high points of Western culture - ancient Greece and the Renaissance. Pederasty, like homosexuality, has existed, and exists, in all societies that have ever been studied. Homoeroticism is a ubiquitous feature of human experience, as even efforts to repress it confirm. Men and youths have always been attracted to each other, and, like homosexuality in general, their love is irrepressible.

I didn't say homosexuals are pederasts; I said pederasts are homosexuals; i.e., I think pederasts are a subset of homosexuals. But since pederasts obviously don't self-identify, the only way to keep them away from boys is to keep homosexuals out. And as a youth protection issue, I agree with that. But of course, that's not the PC-thing to say, so BSA leans on the "morally-straight" approach, which I think gets them in more trouble.

In my opinion, the Bible has nothing to do with BSA's position on gays -- that's a red-herring. I think BSA's position is related more to youth proection and the pederasty-scandals of the last thirty years or so. And while I am well aware that the homosexual lobby draws a distinction between pederasts and homosexuals, the fact is, both involve same-sex intercourse, so as far as I'm concerned, a pederast is a homosexual, so its not a long way to get from one to the other. In BSA, youth protection is paramount. Since pederasts are homosexuals, excluding homosexuals excludes pederasts. Now, the gay-lobby may not agree with that analysis, but the fact remains, BSA is free to set its membership standards as it wishes. There is no Constitutional right for gay men to have sex with boys.

"There is no place on the adult application for the Charter organization to sign." ?? As I look at the adult app (form 28-501X), under "Approvals for Unit Scouters", after the CC signs, the charter organization head or COR signs. So the CO does indeed sign off ("approve") the unit leadership.

I found an article by author Richard Louv (written five years ago) in which he proposes some solutions to help get kids back to nature. Sadly, Louv doesn't mention Scouting! I hope he corrects this unfortunate omission in his book. In any event, here is the link to the article, "Clearing a Path to Nature": http://www.connectforkids.org/node/173 http://www.connectforkids.org/articles/clearing_a_path_to_nature In it, he suggests the following: Join nature organizations, and encourage them to pay attention to kids (by this, he means the Audobon Society, Sierra Club, etc., but does not mention Scouting) Take a nature break (walking in the woods, visit the zoo, etc.) Go camping, boating, hiking Take nature vacations Encourage schools to incorporate nature into the curriculum (have a biology class adopt a woods and clean it up) Conduct family or school nature treasure hunts and nighttime explorations These are all very good suggestions, but I'm disappointed that Louv didn't recognize that we do all these things in Scouting!

A panel of leading constitutional scholars, including Dean Kenneth Starr, will debate "The Constitution and The Boy Scouts: Equal Access to Government Land and the First Amendment, on Wednesday, May 18 from noon to 2 p.m. Pacific Time The public and the media are invited to attend the program or to watch and participate in the Internet. For those attending in person, lunch will be served free of charge. The program is sponsored by the Federalist Society on Law and Public Policy and will be held at the Wyndham Hotel at Emerald Plaza 400 West Broadway, San Diego, CA, in the Crystal Ballroom. If you want to attend in person, you are asked to register for the event by calling (202) 822-8138 or by sending an email to rsvp@fed-soc.org Specific cases affecting the Boy Scouts will be discussed, as well as the constitutional rights of charities to have access to public forums and government property. The 90-minute program will be webcast live from San Diego, California, the site of important litigation between the ACLU and Boy Scouts of America. A panel of leading constitutional scholars will debate the issues from both the pro-ACLU and pro-Boy Scout perspectives: Professor Vikram Amar, University of California Hastings College of Law Professor Alan Brownstein, University of California Davis School of Law George Davidson, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, BSA National Counsel Professor John Eastman, Chapman University School of Law Dean Kenneth Starr, Pepperdine University School of Law Dean Daniel Rodriguez, University of San Diego Law School (moderator) After the Supreme Court's decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, holding that Boy Scouts have the right to decide leadership standards based on observance of the Scout Oath and Law, the ACLU argues that leases of parkland to Boy Scouts by the City of San Diego are unconstitutional. The Boy Scouts argue, on the other hand, that it would be unconstitutional for the City to refuse to lease to the Boy Scouts when it has more than 100 leases to other non-profit groups on similar terms. (For more background on the San Diego case, please visit BSA's legal issues website http://www.BSAlegal.org'>http://www.bsalegal.org ) The 90-minute webcast begins live promptly at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time (1:30 p.m. Mountain, 2:30 p.m. Central, 3:30 p.m. Eastern). You will be able to send questions to the panelists during the program. To access the webcast, open your browser and go to this URL: http://www.vcnetcast.com/fed. You will need high-speed Internet access and either Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. To send questions to the panel during the program, send an email to scoutpanel@fed-soc.org Questions may be edited for length and clarity or condensed from several similar questions. If you do not want the moderator to say your name when asking the question, please say so in your email. We hope that you will log on, watch, and participate in this important debate. Visit http://www.BSAlegal.org

P_S, I know I ate some dirt when I was a kid -- maybe that explains how I got to be where I am today . . .

trev, tell us more about this "Shoebox Campout"?

My daughter is a junior in HS and refuses to work on her Gold Award. My wife was her Troop leader in Maryland for three years, but since we moved to TX (summer of 2003) and my daughter joined a new Troop, she's completely lost interest. I've begged and cajoled her to no avail. My wife has tried the scholarship angle, but it falls on deaf ears. At this point, I'm thinking you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him (or her) drink. In my own life, since I became an adult I've regretted not being a Boy Scout and earning Eagle (I was a Cub Scout who dropped out to play football). My daughter already has her Silver, so she knows what to do -- she doesn't want to do it. She wants to do the project but not the required badges. I worry that missing this chance will be something she'll later regret and for the rest of her life. But right now, she doesn't care and she feels like she'll never regret it. My wife has tired of bugging our daughter and has also given up. Should I also back-off and let her be? What have others done?

http://www.washtimes.com/culture/20050503-102919-6286r.htm By Amy Doolittle THE WASHINGTON TIMES May 04, 2005 Children once went to summer camp to swim and sing "Kumbaya" with their friends while roasting marshmallows around the fire. Now, at camps such as Pali Overnight Adventures on Lake Arrowhead in Southern California, parents who want their children to get in touch with the great outdoors can send them on summer adventures like Spa and Well-Being Camp, Fashion Camp and Rock Star Camp. Specialty camps are gaining popularity and now make up about 20 percent of the roughly 10,000 overnight summer camps in the United States, says Jeff Solomon, executive director at the National Camp Association. Camps that focus on specific subjects and education are attractive to both parents and teens because of the learning experience involved, says Mr. Solomon. "I think that kids today are totally different than the kids we saw 20 years ago," says Tina Krinsky, co-owner of Julian Krinsky Camps and Programs. "Today's have passions. They want to specialize. They really have something they want to focus on and get very good at." What attracts children to Pali Overnight Adventures, says the company's marketing director, Melanie Senior, are the scope of choices and attitude of the staff. "These days, teenagers are looking to have the respect the way adults are treated, so giving them choices is very attractive," she says. The Pali program offers about 18 specializations in which the children can participate during the morning. Afternoons are spent working on a different specialization, separate from the program for which they enrolled. But specialization is not necessarily attractive to every age group, says Eric Swanson-Dexel, director of Camp Hammer, a traditional camp tucked away in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Boulder Creek, Calif. "It's true that campers want to bring home some knowledge and understanding from their experience at camp. But I think we live in a society that's always telling kids that they need to have a specialization," he says. It might not be the children who are pushing for the expensive, education-driven programs, he says. "I think it's the parents that want to say their kids have learned a specialization," Mr. Swanson-Dexel says. But Mrs. Krinsky, who has operated camps since 1977, says both specialization and focus are desired because they are the societal norm. "We just live in a time now where kids don't play the way they did 20 years ago," she says. "Now everything is organized. They have outside stimulation -- kids today are dropped off even from yoga to this and that." Old-fashioned camps offer children the chance to "feel nature," Mr. Swanson-Dexel says, something that is not available to them elsewhere and that specialized camps may not offer. "Kids enjoy that they get to use their own imagination and it's not something that's created for them," he says. "They get to be in nature away from technology and media that they face every day." The number of specialized camps across the nation may be increasing, says Mr. Solomon, because their focus is on older teens. "Kids are going [to summer camps] at older ages than ever before," he says. "All of the sudden, it's cool to keep going to camp when you are 16, 17 and even 19 years old." But why are camps suddenly attractive to the older set? The explanation, says Mr. Solomon, can be found in the deconstruction of the traditional, nuclear family. "Hanging out in the schoolyard is no longer a safe option," he says. "Grandma isn't down the block, nuclear families are not the same, and the need for summer camp is that much greater. The biggest change is that 20 years ago camp was a luxury item. Today, camp is a necessity." This summer, Mr. Solomon says, between 6.5 million and 7 million children will attend American camps. About 20 percent of these children will come from overseas. Parents around the world are becoming more interested in sending their children to American summer camps, Mr. Solomon says, because they are interested in exposing their children to different cultures and types of people. "There's been a large influx of international campers. Kids in this country that go to camps are suddenly in a melting pot and coming away learning other cultures," he says. At Pali, which typically sells out its camps, about 50 percent of the counselors and 20 percent of the children are international. Despite the growing interest in special classes, Mr. Solomon says, an element of traditionalism will prevail. He said specialty camps probably will never be as popular as the typical woods-and-cabin experience. "The traditional general camp is still the most popular form and will probably always be because it's very attractive to families. Camp is a multigenerational phenomenon. Parents still want kids to experience what they experienced," he says.

Reading that article also brought back memories of my own childhood. I'm 50 and grew up in suburban Dallas, although it was closer to rural life then than it is now. I don't remember watching a lot of TV, except on weekends when cartoons were on. We didn't have video games, but we had pinball -- but I never really got into that. But I do remember playing chase / tag games that took us into the woods and across many, many city blocks. Although I never built one, I remember climbing into old treehouses in the woods that were several miles from my house. I caught minnows by hand in the stream below the treehouse, which itself was up a 25-30 foot "cliff", then we would slide down and into the mud below. We caught crawdads in the mud, and chased horney toads on the school grounds. In the summer, I'd catch fireflies and put dozens into a mason jar to see if they'd light my room at night. When I wasn't walking several miles to school, I'd ride my bike. One summer, as they were building a highway near my house, they dug out a huge mound of dirt for an underpass. The mound felt like it was 50' high (it was probably much less). I used to climb to the top, then jump down, feeling like I was flying. I'd take my bike over to another "canyon" and ride off to a landing 20 feet below. In another woods, was a cable strung over a dried creekbed. After football practice, we'd all go over to the cable and swing on it for the heckuvit. I used to pull lawn mower around the several blocks near my house, and mow yards for $5 (front only) or $10 (front and back). I didn't have an edger -- but I made a lot of money back when gas was 25 a gallon. I also threw papers for a couple of years, which meant getting up at 5 in the morning, folding & throwing my papers, then go collecting once a month, all on my own, many miles from home. During summers, I'd do my chores as quickly as possible, then ride off on my bike to the neighborhood swimming pool, and swim all day for a quarter (50 after I turned 12!) without any sunscreen! I'd also collect returnable soda bottles and save the change to buy candy from the 7-11 (which was a "Cabell's" before that) before school every morning. At Halloween, I'd trick or treat over dozens of blocks, covering many miles from my house. And I used to fly kits in a huge cowpasture behind my house, then suffer from chigger bites for the next few weeks. Man, I'd never let my son do today what I used to do back then . . .

I don't know -- you need to ask your DE (or SE). The meetings & training are for registered attendees only, but its possible the exhibits may be open to the public.

BSAChaplain, the invited pastor gave both the invocation as well as the benediction, in addition to his remarks. I didn't mean to come down so hard on him - I just thought as a youth minister, he could've been more sensitive to the attention span of boys who are 11-14 yo. These are boys who showed up to support the candidate (to get to BW's point), not to hear a sermon. Remember, these boys are in Scouting for many reasons, but I doubt if being preached to about character development is one of them -- they get enough of that on Sundays! And yes, your last point is well-taken -- thanx for the reminder.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050510/LIVING/505100335/ http://tinyurl.com/7fvul By Bradford McKee The New York Times News Service May 10, 2005 Were it not for the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, Neil Figler said, his sons, 7 and 11, might never peel themselves away from the Xbox to go outside and play. "My kids want to finish their homework so they can play video games," said Figler, 47, a salesman and Cubmaster in Goldens Bridge, N.Y. In scouting, his sons have learned to light fires, handle knives and build sleds for trekking through the woods. But even those occasional encounters with nature are planned and supervised by adults. Nonetheless, the outings seem wilder than most anything else going on in kidland these days. Figler said his sons find life easier and more familiar in front of a computer screen. Among the Scouts, he said, "that's more the norm than the exception." The days of free-range childhood seem to be over. And parents can now add a new worry to the list of things that make them feel inept: Increasingly, their children, as Woody Allen might say, are at two with nature. Doctors, teachers, therapists and even coaches have been saying for years that children spend too much time staring at video screens, booked up for sports or lessons or sequestered by their parents against the remote threat of abduction. But a new front is opening in the campaign against children's indolence. Experts are speculating, without empirical evidence, that a variety of cultural pressures have pushed children too far from the natural world. The disconnection bodes ill, they say, both for children and for nature. Author Richard Louv calls the problem "nature-deficit disorder." He came up with the term, he said, to describe an environmental ennui flowing from children's fixation on artificial entertainment rather than natural wonders. Those who are obsessed with computer games or are driven from sport to sport, he maintains, miss the restorative effects that come with the nimbler bodies, broader minds and sharper senses that are developed during random running-around at the relative edges of civilization. Parents will probably encounter Louv in appearances and articles leading up to the publication of his seventh book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" (Algonquin Books). The book is an inch-thick caution against raising the fully automated child. "I worked really hard to make this book not too depressing," Louv (pronounced "loov") said recently from his home in San Diego. He urges parents to restore childhood to the unplugged state of casual outdoor play that they may remember from their own youth. "It's society's whole attitude that nature isn't important anymore," said Louv, 56, who has two sons, ages 17 and 23. Dr. Donald Shifrin, a pediatrician in Bellevue, Wash., and a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, said he sees the signs every day of the syndrome Louv describes in his book. His patients now arrive with fewer broken arms from falling out of trees (soccer and lacrosse injuries are most common), and more video games, cell phones and hand-held computers. "We have mobile couch potatoes," Shifrin said. "The question is, are we going to turn this around with more opportunities for kids to interact with nature?" Even if parents think their children get too much screen time and not enough safari time, many have no idea what to do about it. "It's absolutely a phenomenon that nobody knows how to break," said Mark Fillipitch, 40, a manager for a Caterpillar dealer and the father of four children -- 10-year-old triplets (two boys and a girl) and a 6-year-old boy -- in Acworth, Ga. "It is stronger than we are." No TV till after dark Tracy Herzog, 42, a hospital fitness director and the mother of boys ages 7 and 12 in Pembroke Pines, Fla., in effect banishes her children outdoors, she said, by not allowing them near the television, the Game Boy or the PlayStation until after dark. And only if their homework is done. "As parents, we have to make it uncomfortable for them to be sedentary," Herzog said. "The temptation is to let the TV or PlayStation baby-sit them." Playing on parental anxieties has become an industry unto itself, but substantive data are almost nonexistent on the presumably growing distance between children and bugs, flowers and seashells. Louv, who also is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has studied the topic as much as anyone. He interviewed about 3,000 children nationwide and many parents for his book. Few, if any, scientific studies exist showing that children now spend less time exploring nature or describing the ways they benefit from being where the wild things are. "Who's going to pay for that research?" Louv asked. "What toy can we sell for natural play?" Stephen R. Kellert, a professor of social ecology at Yale whose book "Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection" (Island Press) is to be published this summer, said that he had not seen Louv's book but that ample anecdotal evidence exists to support its argument. "When you look for the hard data, it's hard to find," Kellert said. "And people talk about children's contact with nature often in a very indiscriminate way." Children, he said, experience nature in many settings, often indirectly. If the Internet or television prevents a child from looking for four-leaf clovers, it may also provide vicarious ways to discover Amazonian rain forests. But, he added, the passive watching of a video screen does not simulate the uncertainty and risk, however minor, that make natural exploration bracing. The risk part, assuming that children do just want to wander outdoors, is perhaps never low enough for parents. Tom Cara, 47, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill., said that he and his wife, Erin, take their son, 10, and daughter, 14, on bike trips and that he and his son go camping and fishing in the Wisconsin wilderness. But it's hard to let children roam too freely, he said, because the news media have spooked parents with reports of child abductions and murders. "We've been conditioned to live in fear," he said. That fear resounds for other parents, too. Figler, the Cubmaster, said that 12 rural acres lie behind his home, and that he and his sons often explore them together. But the woods are off-limits to his younger son if he is alone. His older son may explore them, but only with a two-way radio. "It's more my wife than me" who worries, Figler said. But they both grew more concerned after their sons' school notified them that two registered sex offenders live nearby. "We're in an awareness of safety now that may not have been as prevalent" in the past, Figler said. "You're always thinking about child abductions. You see the stories on TV, and it gets you nervous." Worry about criminal harm Like grim news stories, Amber Alerts, broadcast to help spot missing children, also may take a toll on parents' nerves by playing up the risk of criminal harm to their children. Dr. Daniel D. Broughton, a pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a former chairman of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he understands the parents' fears. But he said they need to balance that fear with reality and learn to create safe zones where kids can run around on their own. "We definitely want kids to be able to go out and play," Broughton said. "The sedentary lifestyle is a huge problem in my practice every single day. I haven't gone a day where I don't see a kid who's too fat." Louv refers to parents' abduction fears as "the bogeyman syndrome." But he suggests that the more likely bogeymen are people who "criminalize" outdoor play through neighborhood associations and their covenants. "If all these covenants and regulations were enforced, then playing outdoors would be illegal," Louv said. For Herzog, the fitness director, the local schoolyard has become the latest casualty. It was fenced off recently for security: a "lockdown," she called it. "That doesn't allow active play on the school grounds" during off hours, Herzog said. "It's not getting any easier."

Before dumping things in your campfire, you might take a look at: "What's Burning in your Campfire? Garbage In, Toxics Out" http://leavenotrace-ga.org/downloads/trainer/toxics-campfires1.pdf This recreation Tech Tip from the USDA Forest Service was published in September, 2004 and gives chapter and verse on why LNT says "Pack it Out", and "Minimize the Impact of Fire".

trev: I got my 2nd Jambo patch yesterday, which confirms I'm paid up -- I can't wait! So, will I see you in Grapevine?

ManyIrons: the sermon was nonsectarian; in other words, he didn't push the views of any one faith over another. His sermon really wasn't very religious at all -- it was about boys and character development. Like I said, stuff that wouldn't interest most 11-14 yo boys (which was the approx. range of the boys in attendance). There were very few Stars & Lifes, who might've been better equipped to understand the sermon. Trev: I'm driving to the Jamboree; do I still need some sort of transportation confirmation letter?

I appreciate your comments and am not the least bit offended. My son and I are both new at this so we weren't sure how these ceremonies are put together. Trust me: when (not if!) my son makes Eagle, we will remember this COH and not repeat these mistakes. To answer your questions: Yes, the CO is a church and the COH was held in the parish hall, but the candidate attends a different church. The speaker was from the other church. The sermon wasn't sectarian; it was about boys growing up to be responsible men. I don't know what the minister was asked to do; in fairness, its possible the candidate gave him a time limit of 20 minutes to speak. The rest of the ceremony was very dignified, appropriate to the occasion. No other part took nearly as long as the preacher's sermon. I couldn't tell how the candidate was reacting to the sermon, as I was sitting somewhat behind him. Its possible he was so into the moment, being in the spotlight and all, that he might not have had the same reaction to the sermon as the other boys did. But their reaction was very obvious. I don't think the minister's actions were exactly inappropriate -- he just spent far too much time talking about a topic that was of almost no interest to the rest of the Troop. Granted, he was there at the invitation of the candidate. But he was, after all, a youth minister. I'm surprised he didn't take into account their limited attention span, and their willingness to listen (or not listen) to a somewhat dry topic. In any event, thanx again for your suggestions.