Fuzzy Bear

It may be that some are not really Scouts or they don't know how they come across in the printed word. Generally, when it is pointed out there is complete denial. It is like a glass of water being spilled and nobody can stop it from hitting the floor. Moralizing doesn't appear to work. Warnings sometimes makes them back off. A thirty day suspension only brings them back with a slow burning vengeance and then there is the total cessation of their presence which sometimes brings them back with another pen name and/or location. It is like an addiction without a cure.

I joined Boy Scouts in 1960 after completing my Webelos badge. My first camp was in Dallas, Texas in chilly 10 degree weather. I was warm snuggled in my sleeping bag made of a quilt and an army blanket lined with newspapers. We had a two man wall tent that three of us slept in that night. It was the Golden Anniversary of Scouting Camporee so we received a special patch. The next day it warmed which made the activities bearable. A policeman that was a local TV personality taught us how to say "Boy oh Boy" in Donald Duck speak. That is all of the DD I can speak to this day. In our suppl

Let me pose a similar question. Ask a Scout about their duty to their Country. It is a complex question for a youth. The individual is not old enough to vote. They may have only vague ideas about the laws of t he land. The majority does not drive and if they do they are beginners. They have not served in the Armed Forces. They do not pay taxes and most do not work full-time jobs or own homes. History may be a subject only about the olden days and government may have been a course they were forced to take in school. We teach them to say the Pledge of Allegiance and to salute the

LH, I failed to communicate effectively, so let me try again. The mundane items are the everyday tasks in Scouting that people ask about, such as, BsOR, sash wearing, hat selection which can be compared to the discussions about the economy, the war, the national debt which are less common subjects in Scouting. My target idea was directed more at the reason behind the questions that people ask no matter what type. Their inquiry may really be deeper and more meaningful than what is on the surface, such as needing, friendship, small talk, interaction. When a person rushes to reply with a

Ollie was carefully chosen as a factional mouthpiece to distort not to exhort the truth. Many are attracted to his style of sensationalism. The public trust was never a consideration. His style, appearance and personality was his presentation. Mickey Dugan proudly wears his Ollie North tee.

Long Haul, Our sincere prayer is that the bad things reported from Congressional doodlings are the exceptions and not the rule because lurking just beneath that is a deep and abiding fear that it is just the tip of a large an implacable iceberg. Selling out such a Country as ours for a few thousand bucks goes far beyond treason and has little to do with being on the fringe of criminal behavior but is rooted deeply within a walking pathological nightmare. All it takes is one quick look around the world to see what the other fellow has chosen to compare with what we have set as our standa

I want to reference the recent departure of Kahuna and some of the things that were stated about how people present. I will attempt this by using summarization and analysis of each statement, all of which I thought to be insightful. I didn't quote directly and I am sure that meanings, both large and small were missed, so forgiveness is requested and of course, responses and additions are welcome. Rulesmongering reminded me how much nicer Scouting used to be and isn't now, so I am leaving the Forum-Kahuna Title: The value and the method of making Reasonable Arguments/Di

Knowles, an English artist, painted during the early part of the 20th century. This picture, not confirmed by a rapid search from misplaced boxes in the attic nor from a faulty memory, as being a BL cover but it looks like it could have been. Although a beautiful picture, the WWI English BS uniforms worn might not have been acceptable by J. West, known for his control over such things. I will also say that the patrol colors on the right shoulder, too small for accurate identification, may belong to the Bear patrol, as it should be and as I am prone to point out. Others in the Forum may hav

I suppose asking about the validity of the 1.2 million membership count would miss the point?

Kahuna, I respect you and the time that you have spent here and your many contributions. You are most likely leaving the Forum for possibly all of the right reasons. You may also be taking a much needed vacation or you may simply need to seek other vistas. Most here seemed to have experienced something meaningful whether it was opinion, fact or emotion, so I assume treasure is being carried away. I believe that this place is a good place to camp, of course it is not the only one and camping is not the only activity, even in Scouting. Since I first began writing in this

Kahuna, I respect you and the time that you have spent here and your many contributions. You are most likely leaving the Forum for possibly all of the right reasons. You may also be taking a much needed vacation or you may simply need to seek other vistas. Most here seemed to have experienced something meaningful whether it was opinion, fact or emotion, so I assume treasure is being carried away. I believe that this place is a good place to camp, of course it is not the only one and camping is not the only activity, even in Scouting. Since I first began writing in this

O.T. I will bite. I do not follow the speed limit all of the time. I do follow it when I don't want to worry about getting stopped or when I have started early for an appointment or when Scouting. I went to court once for getting out of a traffic line that had signage three miles prior to a construction zone. I didn't see any barriers nor any construction. Since I had used the road before, I knew that the exit was around the next curve in the road. I put on my blinker and pulled over into the empty lane to exit. What I didn't know was that around that next curve were sev

I work daily with a policy and procedures manual that has state and federal guidelines/rules for working with people with disabilities. I have also worked in school systems where we had state and federal guidelines/rules for the same. There are far more than 7 rules and/or pages to try the limits of one's understanding. Problems appear frequently and they stem from personal perspective, background knowledge and experience. Generally, it is not in the way the item is written but in the way the person perceives it. A federal monitor that has far more insight on the interpretive background w

I went to a Summer Camp every year from 11 until I graduated. There were rules but I was never harangued for an hour by anyone. Rules were given in short order and we were expected to follow them. As an adult, I staffed and ran Camporees, Cuborees, Cub Swim and Scout Swim lessons. I have taught in and managed Cub Day Camps, Resident Camps, Scout Camps, Camps for the Disabled. Rules are reviewed quickly and the action begins. Sessions, depending on the camp, may not even be an hour in length, so I am not sure what kind of camp or Council is involved with the rule overload. As a form

The Scout Oath is a goal with several parts, none which is more important than the other and is aspired to but seldom obtained by its' practitioners. Most of the development is done by the individual in solitary thought, thinking about the lessons imparted by the leaders and related experiences. There are but a few times in the life of any one Scout that a lesson is driven straight home for the Scout to accept. There is always freedom to think through the high ideals and morals that are learned, taught and demonstrated. Scouting is a game where reason is paramount and forced acceptance of

PS, My boys and I loved the TB song. gwd Two stories: 1. As a Scout, my best summer camp memory was when our SM had us pack lightly for an overnighter. We departed directly after supper in canoes and paddled across the lake to an island. Before dark we played games in the canoes and in the water. We then threw our sleeping bags and ground cloths down and slept beneath the stars and a bright moon. It was cold but we were tired and slept hard. The early morning return trip to a hearty breakfast was even better. That extra trip cost nothing to the program but was worth more than

Being able to decide what is right is not always the easiest position to have in life. Ethical decisions can begin with a body of knowledge that is based on local authority, meaning that the group decides what is correct. Correctness may be a mirror of what a family believes to be right or a church, etc. Some may choose to defer to universal truths, such as the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, or the Constitution. Others may look to role models that have shown the way for others to follow or shown others how to live. Some may want rules simply to reduce hurt, harm or violence. If the

Regarding training programs available for its' membership and the BSA, the BSA not only compares with any other organization but surpasses most if not all. Generally, the problem is with the indivdual volunteer refusing to partake of that which is offered and refusing to follow the program that they were trained on. The next link is the non-existent quality control and then lack of follow-up and lack of use of the Executive to police the problem once it is recognized. This doesn't take into account CO's that know nothing about birthin' and supporting that which they have delivered. The big

I deal with this issue almost daily in a State Agency. We require that a person with a drug habit complete a recognized Rehab. program and be clean and sober for six months prior to us taking an application. The reason I share this is that it is a good policy, one that works. If they meet the criteria, then we keep the door open for periodic drug checks for another six months. We request that they be in a follow-up or maintenance program as well. The problem that occurs frequently is affected reasoning and a decision to continue with past relationships. There has to be a significan

My parents read to me very little and I had just a few books as a child. The two that I remember were Mother Goose and H. C. Anderson's Fairy tales; both the stories and the pictures made me sick. As I learned to read, it was and remained a school chore until the nineth grade. During that fateful year, a young lady lured me into the library to become an aide so that I could get out of study hall. She was cute and funny so we worked side by side, usually hiding far back in the shelving units to talk and laugh while pretending to put books away. One day it happened. You know what I m

Upon recruiting another Commissioner, we discussed, "Were you ever in Scouting?". His reply was, "Yes, I was a Life Scout." He also commented on how irritating it had always been to him that he had never reached Eagle. That got me to thinking about how many young people over the years that Scouting has affected. We think we know the numbers from year to year but it is not a straight forward addition problem. Maybe we should only count those that have a connection to the Scout Oath and Law. It is by these standards that we measure our thoughts and actions in or out of a Scout unifor

Historically, Cavalier was a derogatory term that showed what the typical English Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side, capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large. One Lords prayer has been remembered in, O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me". It later took on the image of a contemptuous overbearing swashbuckler or swaggering gallant. Even later, it became a pejorative propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man, who rarely, if ever, thought of God. Edward Hyde, one of the Kings men, said

FS, We had a guy here for a while that could quote the chapter, verse but he was more political than any of the politicians that you now read. Getting an answer to a Scouting question is tricky because of the heavy personal baggage we all lug around. I think you do what you just did, which was to add up all of the responses and divide by the number of respondents and hope the average is not mean, pun intended. FB

Whenever a person looks backward in time and attempts to piece it together using the records, there is a distinct probability that the report will be measured using today's standards and not those of the original. This is like the Monday Morning Quarterback replaying the game without so much as being in the stands or watching on T.V. Take some of the present day events in our world and try to make sense of them. Wait fifty years and then see how right or wrong you are on those issues. Judging B.P. by drawing historical assumptions and mingling present day standards is to take a compass bea

Troop_Dad, Let me rephrase. Have everyone camp 1,000 yards apart with their hands in plain sight so everyone will remain moral. I am sure this will do it. FB