Kahuna

Terry: A very well thought-out and well written article. I agree with you entirely and particularly when it comes to the issue of gay youth members. Growing up gay or figuring out whether you are gay is an extremely difficult thing for kids, especially boys. To be part of an organization that tells you that you'd be kicked out if they knew is a supreme insult. Obviously, there will be many people who will be unhappy enough to leave the BSA. But many have left us, stopped supporting Scouting financially and even returned their Eagle badges because they saw it as unfair. I think in the long

Terry: A very well thought-out and well written article. I agree with you entirely and particularly when it comes to the issue of gay youth members. Growing up gay or figuring out whether you are gay is an extremely difficult thing for kids, especially boys. To be part of an organization that tells you that you'd be kicked out if they knew is a supreme insult. Obviously, there will be many people who will be unhappy enough to leave the BSA. But many have left us, stopped supporting Scouting financially and even returned their Eagle badges because they saw it as unfair. I think in the long

Terry: A very well thought-out and well written article. I agree with you entirely and particularly when it comes to the issue of gay youth members. Growing up gay or figuring out whether you are gay is an extremely difficult thing for kids, especially boys. To be part of an organization that tells you that you'd be kicked out if they knew is a supreme insult. Obviously, there will be many people who will be unhappy enough to leave the BSA. But many have left us, stopped supporting Scouting financially and even returned their Eagle badges because they saw it as unfair. I think in the long

>>Gotta love all the ad hominem attacks here

Anybody know anything about what's going on in No Fla Council? Word is going around that they have suspended all Sea Scouting and revoked unit charters for all Ships. I find this hard (but not impossible) to believe and would like to get more info about it.

"Kahuna, Kudu would be proud." I hope so, Trevorum!

"Why were not schools and offices riddled with bullets then, what has changed?" I don't believe personally that violence in movies and video games has much to do with it. One of the main reasons we didn't have those problems back then is that guys like the ones in Sandy Hook and Aurora were locked up back then. Same reason you didn't have a lot of homeless people wandering around mumbling to themselves. But they got rights and we got shooters.

Packsaddle says, "Now, how do we, as volunteers, move the program to where it ought to be?" The answer to that is fairly simple. Run the program like it would have been in 1960 with some accommodation for paperwork and training requirements. Avoid council events like the plague. Keep commissioners and busybodies out. It can be done, but I'm too old to try it.

Beavah says, "We haven't had a visionary program person committed to kids since Green Bar Bill, eh?" Etc, etc. I could not agree more. I think your statement sums up the problem pretty well. There are some issues of national PR that have to do with gays and atheists, but by and large, boys would join and leaders would volunteer to be part of Scouting as it was thirty years ago. Frankly there is just too much BS and most new volunteers and a lot of old, cranky ones like me just don't want to put up with it. The National program is BS and has not responded to our complaints. Hence, we

"Assault WEAPONS is the term you described. It's a term mostly used by the pro gun control crowd." You are correct, Sentinel947. I should have been more explicit. I do mean what these people are calling assault weapons. Beaver is correct. Hitler never banned guns in the Third Reich, except for Jews. Gun registration and background checks were required. Hitler never had a problem with fearing an armed populace. People who didn't like him tended to disappear into camps or Gestapo graves.

Assault rifle is a made-up term to denigrate certain types of weapons of which certain people disapprove. We had a ban against these types of weapons from 1994 to 2004. Numbers of gun deaths have actually decreased since 2004. School massacres such as Sandy Hook and Aurora (Columbine didn't involve that type of weapon) are sad, unfathomable and piss us off. However, in the end, there isn't much that can be done to stop this kind of violence. Then there is the fact that there are enough of these weapons and magazines in existence to last over a hundred years. We aren't going to get in

I was a DE during Boypower '76. Member and unit goals were imposed from the top down and were impossible to meet. That's why 13 councils were caught making up paper units. And we still had to raise money and do the other stuff. It's almost as bad now, although number goals are more realistic, fund raising is worse and district committees around here don't seem to be doing much to help the DEs. I wouldn't do it again.

My district has done that twice in the last 10-15 years. Didn't seem to cause much of a problem either time. The most recent one had the effect of moving district meetings, roundtables and such to a location inconvenient for me, but they seem to be gradually moving them back to where they were originally.

Troop culture always reflects the attitudes and personalities of the leader, primarily the Scoutmaster.

Thanks for your input, David. When I said council resources, I really meant getting input from people in the community. I know most councils have little in the way of archives. I have found some councils have had success in getting old photos and stories from families in and out of Scouting.

I'm looking forward to it, David. I have become very fond of council histories, and your writing. I'd like to spearhead an effort to collect information for Central Florida, but I'm afraid all the historians are long dead and I'm not sure the level of interest at council is really there. Did you guys use council resources to get people to supply photos and information? There is very little in the way of archives anywhere here.

There will always be some doubt, but after reading Vince Bugliosi's book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of JFK,I was pretty much in agreement with his well crafted legal argument that Oswald acted alone. Bugliosi, BTW, was the one who prosecuted the Manson Family. He prosecuted in a mock trial in 1986 with Gerry Spence defending. A jury found Oswald guilty. As a lawyer, I bought his argument enough to vote guilty. As a college student at the time of the event, I will always want to think that surely it couldn't have been as simple as this one little punk with a grudge.

Scouts and leaders may be interested in this little series. A friend sent it to me because he knew I'm a Scouter. This is a 12 year old boy who is sent out in various survival scenarios. The people who support the videos make sure he is backed up, so these are not situations Scouts should try on their own. Just makes for interesting discussions. http://www.youtube.com/user/Collabovies

So, would anybody care to join in my revulsion against the trend to use the term "good of" to mean something like "too good a deal to be real?" The news mavens and authors are using this now. They say, "It's too good of a deal to pass up." Same thing with using "to" instead of "too." As in, "I was to drunk to care."

>>Don't tell anyone, okay? But I miss the knee high socks and garters. I thought they looked good as an integral part of the uniform, protected your legs from poison ivy and minor scratches, and multiples packed easy for longer trips.

I've had no negative comments, but find people are interested to know what BSA does nowadays to prevent abuse. They are impressed by the background checks, YPT and guidlines now in place. I think the BSA is today in the forefront of child protection and has been for some time. Some people, like Eamonn's boss, are going to think what they think and there really isn't much we can do about it.

Eagle92 writes: "Anyway, one of the things he talked about was when professional training was at Schiff and you camped during the entire time." Be very wary of anything else he told you because that is just not true. There never was a time when professionals camped during their training at Schiff. The JLITC boys did, the Woodbadgers did, but the professionals always stayed in the little houses built on the property. During my time at Schiff (1970), there was no professional camping at all. The NTS guys in the early days may have had a day or two, but they lived in buildings.

A more innocent time?

I've been to the statue in President's Park a couple of times and even remember when they were raising money for it. I admit I never really got the symbolism of the statue and it seems there must have been a better way to portray the meaning of Scouting. However, in light of our recent problems with publicity over the "perversion files," it seems particularly inappropriate. I'm surprised the press hasn't picked up on it. An old Scouting friend recently brought up the subject. In case you don't recall what the statue looks like, check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scou

Thanks for mentioning that. I was unable to find it earlier in a search for information about Bill. Good quote. We would all be better Scouters if we followed Bill's advice.