pinkflame

This is an issue with many facets, and to try to bring it down to only pro-choice vs. pro-life fals into a mass media level of trivialization.

On a personal level, my son came to me by adoption so I am grateful to his birth mother for not thinking he was a mistake to be disposed of.

As has been pointed out, the federal funding issue involves a gag order, not really funds for abortion. If an organization even mentioned abortion in the process of counseling a woman on her options in an unplanned pregnancy, then they faced the possibility of loss of ALL federal funds for whatever else they did, from family planning to prenatal care to breast and cervical cancer screening. That is just for words, not actions. I am a physician, and, depending on which hospital or clinic I am in, have had to dance around those linguistic prohibitions. It is equivalent to not mentioning birth control to post-partum women at the Catholic hospital, although in that setting it is out of respect for the doctrine and faith of the people in charge of the facility, not in obedience to some federal pronouncement based on political expediency.

The federal governemnt is not in the business of paying for abortions (separate orders and pay codes and other unfathomable red tape wound have to be unwound for Medicaid to pay for something like that). It has been in the business of suppressing information about abortion, even within the confines of the doctor (and nurse and nurse-practitioner and PA and patient educator and social worker and etc.)-patient relationship in facilities receiving federal funding.

Meanwhile, as as been pointed out in other posts, there is limited federal (or state) support for prenatal care (Many women without health insurance do not qualify for Medicaid. Some may qualify for a watered down version called CHIPS perinate. It is "woman as vessel" Medicaid, very narrowly defining what it will pay for and what it will not for example, not Pap smears since changes that could lead to cervical cancer will not affect the pregnancy in the short run.) Further, even though there are multiple listings for antiabortion groups in the yellow pages in my community (alphabetically listed before abortion providers), I have rarely had much success in actually finding help for the low income women with unplanned pregnancies who I care for. There might be a bag of diapers here or there, but not the mentoring that I think would be needed for some of these women to become successful parents.

One could say then, people who can't afford them shouldn't be making babies, which makes logical sense but avoids reality (although maybe young girls believing there really was a future for them might go a long way to postponing teen sexual activity and delaying or preventing teen pregnancy). On the other hand, governmental groups have had no trouble pushing a marginally effective HPV vaccine on teen girls and young women when the best way to prevent HPV is to limit the number of lifetime sexual partners (preferably to one). The whole HPV campaign seems to assume that all of these young women are sexually active.

Maybe it's all the sides of the issue that make it hard for people to see any of them clearly, but trivializing down to any kind of us vs them battle is not helpful. There are way too many diffenert shades of "us" and as many diffenert shades of "them". For me, I fall on lots of different edges of the issue all the time.

It seems the thread is a little dereailed.

On the issue of Hispanics in Scouting, from my vantage point in San Antonio it is definitely NOT just a few token Hispanic units, although maybe I should better say units with Hispanic Scouts and Hispanic Scouters. As someone stated, "Hispanic" is a fairly broad term for people from a lot of different places, including many people from the USA for amny generations. Here in San Antonio, Anglos are the minority, so maybe that just makes us different altogether. I have been trying to think of Anglo and Hispanic Scouters I know and I'm pretty sure I know lots more Hispanic Scouters than Anglo Scouters although I usually don't think of peopple in those terms. People go camping and to summer camp and have boy leadership and all the other stuff everyone else does or should be doing. In fact, of the two troops I am most familiar with, the one with predominately Hispanic Scouts and Scouters is much more boy led and travels much more independently than the otehr one ever thought about doing.

Some people have some language issues, but since there is usually someone else (Anglo or Hispanic, since you can't assume a person with a Hispanic surname necessarily speaks Spanish) around to translate. We have been in both affluent and lower-income units with Hispanic Scouters in all of those situations. I have heard some deroggatory statements from youth in an affluent unit I worked with (something about yard men) but it was not supported by the other Scouts.

I went to the link "Scouting Vale la Pena" and it is really pretty innocuous. The only new information is a section devoted to parents about how Scouting will help them help their boys grow up with good values and another place with more emphasis on the 12th Law. Maybe National needs to come to a pluralistic city to see some ways it already works.

All those trailers sound great and efficient and like really god resources for the troops, but the BEST trailer I have ever seen is the one built from a flatbed trailer base by a group of boys from a troop I know on the west side of San Antonio 9not one of your higher income areas). They made, they used it and they were proud of it. It had an open top so they had to learn how to use tarps and tie downs, but learning is part of the deal. Several of them also learned a fiar amount about wiring by working with one of the adults to get the lights working.

There have been hot afternoons at camp when I woul have given up my batttery powered ceiling fan for a cold, shimmering can of Diet Coke

Both of my son's Boy Scout Handbooks and two of my copies of the advancement book (the one with all of the rank and merit badge requirements) have fallen apart. We just use big ziploc bags and big rubber bands now.

first job: being an annoying, nosy mom

day job: family doctor

When my brother went to Boy Scout camp in the 60's he came home with a song form the campfire called "Darkie Sunday School" which included the line "plese leave your chewing gum and razors at teh door and we'll hear some Bible stories that we've never ehard before". At the time, as a white child in north Dallas, I had no idea how insulting and racist that was. now, as the mother of a 16 year old African American Life Scout, I am apalled at my ignorance. The problem is, although not so blatant, those attitudes persist.

STOP, STOP, STOP

Some of us actually read this to get ideas, and work with real boys in real troops who sometimes have real problems fitting in for whatever reason and might need just a little extra boost from some caring adult in the troop. Boys do fall through the cracks, and suggestions and constructive discussion about ways to help them over the rough spots is valuable. Picking apart people's posts is not

STOP, STOP STOP

Our older boys are going to southwestern Colorado this summer for a 5 day backpacking trip off the Silverton-Durango Railroad. We are from San Antonio Texas. Any suggestions on free/cheap places to spend the night along the way

I had a great pair of Nike boots for about 12 years. Not heavy duty enough for long hike but perfect for camp wear. Last year the sole came loose at the rigth toe as we were walking inot our campsite for summer camp. it was rainy that day so I duct taped it. When things dried out I used some plumber's adhesive that another adult had and it held pretty well. On Tuesday I drew Walmart duty (a good thing: flush potties, air conditioning, a short list of supplies to get, a 30 minute drive of peace and quiet, etc.) On the way in to the store the entire sole of the left boot stayed put on the pavement when I stepped forward. i took it as an omen and pu both boots in the nearest trash receptacle. Bought a pair of Walmart boots that the boys. One of the boys told me it was fashionable in middle school to leave the tags on, so I got to have great conversations with many people the whole week at camp, always crediting my Scout fashion consultant. They were not the most comfortable boots so when i got home they went to the church's Under the Bridge program, so now they are gracing the feet of a homeless person. I still have a great story and a Scout who I can always consult on the latest fashions, even if I'm not sure that part of his advice is completely Trustworthy.

Eagle Scout brother found the Y Indian Guides was the best option for his three girls and himself. Around my neck of the woods, 4H is analogous to the White Children's Club, which I guess is OK if your child is white, but it didn't work for us. Sorry to hear GSUSA is on hard times, but that is also what my brother said, which is why they did Indian Guides. I had a great time as Girl Scout years ago, but it was very leader dependent and not really comparable to what my brother got to do as a Boy Scout even in the 60's.

Eagle Scout brother found the Y Indian Guides was the best option for his three girls and himself. Around my neck of the woods, 4H is analogous to the White Children's Club, which I guess is OK if your child is white, but it didn't work for us. Sorry to hear GSUSA is on hard times, but that is also what my brother said, which is why they did Indian Guides. I had a great time as Girl Scout years ago, but it was very leader dependent and not really comparable to what my brother got to do as a Boy Scout even in the 60's.

Just remember, what goes it has to go out, so smaller boys drinking mass quantities of cocoa )or anything else) near bedtime will probably mean they will need to get up and find a tree sometime in the wee (no pun intended) hours of the morning, which will then make then even colder.

Check with the ship. We went to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi when my son was a Webelo and they already had separate male and female sleeping areas. That worked out great for us moms, but the dads had all of the boys in the men's area after the evening ghost stories. Oh well....

I generally agree with you. I think a church function like a service-oriented mission trip where the boy has to find out, sign up, go out of town and really stretch himself is OK, because when he gets to the site he is working with a community organization that is not his church and that he has had to learn about in order to go. Before my time of counseling this MB, the troop required it to be done before the other two Citizenships, which meant mainly very young boys were doing it. They were sent to Bible schools, etc (yes, I said "sent", again negating the "find out about a community agency" part of the requirement). That is slowly changing, and with older boys doing it they are much more able to find out about and do things with organizations they are interested in.

One of the challenges with younger guys a(and their parents) is making that leap from Webelos Activity Badges to merit badges, which I guess is the same leap as from parent-run to boy-run. We are also in the middle of that.

Some of our Scouts have gone on a 3 day house painting mission trip with our Co's youth group, others have voluteered as "buddies" in a special needs baseball league. Others help with Bible schools. a few have helped during teacher work days at the local schools, preparing textbooks for distribution, sprucing up the libraries, etc. This year one of the small towns here had a drive to ear tag pets. Several boys helped with that. Others worked with a faith-based fod distribution proggram.

I agree that there are more opportunities for older boys to have meaningful community service experiences. (Somehow passing out cookies at a church Bible school or dusting the library just doesn't seem as meaningful as finding a soecial needs baseball program and putting yourself out there to volunteer OR going on a mission trips and painting an old person's house, but they both fit the requirement.) Our troop used to require that they do Community first, then Nation and then World, but we stopped that. I hope that will shift the boys toward doing Community last, but who knows. Even the community meeting might be more meaningful if the boys were a little more mature when they attended

Down here in Texas we're just happy that we don't have to have the fans on at night anymore, although it does mean I get to hear the dogs' new serenades.

As for falling leaves, it reminds me of when my son was 6 and we took a trip to Chicago in the fall. He saw those red and yellow leaves swirling down to the pavement and exclaimed "Wow! The teacher really was telling the truth about these things!"

Last week we got back from what the boys are universally calling "the funnest campout ever". Even my teenage son (soon to be 16) has spontaneously said to at least two boys whho weren't there that they should have gone and has even gabbed about it to non-Scout friends. One boy who is totally not a fan of camping and had only come along for the day asked to call his dad for permission to stay the night.

What did we do? We volunteered for as support for a big multiple sclerosis bike ride (150 miles, about 4000 riders). Our guys set up tents, unloaded and categorized bicyclists' luggage (it came to the mid-point by semi, then had to be unloaded, placed in numbered areas, then re-loaded the next morning), racked bikes, delivered ice, prepared and served food to bikers and volunteers and just basically found a bazillion other ways to be helpful (and friendly, courteous, kind, etc.) for the weekend.

We adults were resources and sometimes pointed them where they were needed, but mainly they self-organized and then took their direction from the MS Society people, who were amazed at their maturity and initiative. They have already asked us to come back next year, and the boys are excited and spreading the word to the guys who did not make it.

Frankly, so were we. We usually do normal campouts, patrol cooking, scout skill themes, etc.. This idea began because one of the boys from the troop was riding in the events. A call came out from the Council for troops to help and we volunteered.

The point is, "fun" is a completely relative term. The boys worked like dogs in the sun for a large part of both days, but they all had "fun". I think some of the "fun" was being recognized as valuable contributors to a community effort. Some probably came from what they perceived as autonomy to choose their tasks (trailer unloading or dining hall?). I'm not 11, 12, 13 ,14 ,15 or 16, so I probably don't have a clue why they thought it was fun. One boy said what he liked was that they didn't "have to do anything". This was after he had spent 3-4 hours unloading a semi, helped his patrol set up their campsite and helped with two large dining flies in our public area in the main bike ride tent city. (He might have done other things as well, that's just all the things I personally saw him do.)

The point is, "fun" doesn't have to be endless giggles and grins. The boys know it, and we should listen to what they have to say.

We usually cook and eat by patrols but recently one of the Scouts had an interesting suggestion during his BOR for First Class. When we got to the "is there anything you would want to do differently in the troop?" question, he said that sometimes he would like for us all to eat together under the big dining fly. he said it would feel more like a family. He then suggested we could have a troop progressive dinner on one of the campouts, with each patrol responsible for a different course. His only stipulation was that the NBP not be the patrol that was responsible for the entree. Anyway, it wouldn''t be something we''d do all the time, but it was a spontaneous idea that we encouraged him to bring up to the SPL. I hope they decide to do it because it would be a fun change of pace.

On Sunday after we got hjome I was having lunch with my son and a friend of his. They are both 15. They immediately latched on to the idea and were convinced that only the Venture patrol could really cook a good entree and started fantasizing about chicked alfredo for 50. Now I really hope the guys decide to do it.

My son had one as a Cub. I pln to put it up on a hanger at his Eagle Court of Honor, along with his pine cares on a little stand. I am now putting his Boy Scout patches (summer camps, 50-miler, etc) onto a red felt blanket that I got at the Socut store. He thinks it is real corny now but that''s what moms are all about.

A few years ago a man at our church who had been a lifelong Scouter passed away. At the reception after his funeral, there were multiple tables covered with memorabilia about his life. Most of it was Scouting related. Each table had a "tablecloth" that was a blanket full of Scout patches from places he ahd been or things he had done. It was overwheliming.

This man had been one of my son''s favorite people even when he was a pre-schooler. He had such a wonderful way about him. Seeing physical evidence of of his Scouting journey was one more affirmation of his extraordinary life

I''m referring to MB''s done at MBU''s. I guess the Council''s belief is that the Counselor was at the MBU and sent the list of partials back with the boy, just like from summer camp. (Like when the boy has to take care of a reptile or amphibian for a specified amount of time after doing the rest of Reptiles and Amphibians at summer camp.) This troop has usually discouraged boys from going to MBU''s, and particularly from taking Eagle required MB''s at MBU''s, but last winter made an exception for a boy who was going to a week-long winter camp with another troop.

As to my responsibility, mainly it is to get the blue cards after the SM signs his part of them, put that data into a spreadsheet for Troopmaster entry, shop for MB''s and put together the cards for the SM''s signature before Court of Honor, Arrange a troop schedule for Eagle-required MB''s and recruit counselors for them, keep track of who is signed up for what, work with boys who need to find a counselor for an MB they are interested in and whatever else seems like it needs to be done. It is a big troop, so there is a lot of recordkeepiing and it makes it one less tedious thing for the SM and ASM''s to have to do.

Until recently there was little boy initiative in terms of earning MB''s. An adult would decide they wanted to offer a "class" and announce it and then boys would sign up. There is new leadership in the troop that is trying to steer it toward boy-run and boy-initiative. It''s going to be a long haul, but at least most people, including the CC, are on board.

My son and I came form another troop that was strongly boy led but just too far away to keep making the commute, particularly when he got experienced enough to need to be there early all the time for PLC. Little did we know that the new troop didn''t even have a real PLC! We''ve been here about 2 years now and things are changing slowly. He likes the boys and if there ever is a real PLC he will at least know what it is. I have not wanted to be too pushy or spend all my time saying "that''s not how we did it at ____", so I''ve tried to be helpful, cheerful, courteous and do what I can to help out. This responsibility seemed a good way to contribute to the troop and try to offer little changes on the route to boy-run-ness

Let me clarify. of course participation in school band, etc. What i''m talking about is a Scout who would say, for Communications, "Oh, I wrote a letter to the editor last year for science class" or "Two years ago I gave a speech in class".

The particular instance that prompted me to ask the quesiton is a little stickier since it came from an MBU that was done far away. We have two counselors for the particular badge in the troop, so I can direct the boy to one of them. That has not been done before in the troop, just the SM or an ASM has signed off when the boy brings in his completions. Thewre is new leadership now, so I can bring up the "must follow with counselor" plan.

One of my jobs on the troop committe is to be merit badge coordinator. It''s a big troop, so someone has to do it. This week I had a new problem. A boy had gone to a merit badge university last winter. He came back with a partial for one requirement. This week I got an essay for the requirement that was clearly a school assignment. It doesn''t really fit the reuirment anyway, so in this case I think it will be an easy call for the Scoutmaster to tell him that he needs to meet the requirement with new work (I''m so glad that I am the receiver of materials but not the decision-maker or enforcer).

What about in general? Is it OK for school projects to be applied to meeting merit badge requirements? I can see it in the case of needing to show participation on a team or maybe taking some work done in school and then transmuting it or otherwise applying it to a requirement, but just submitting something done as a school requirement in order to be able to check off a merit badge requirement doesn''t seem quite right.

Oh, I hope the craze isn't over.I've just been hatching an idea to market young men's boxers with prints of My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears and maybe the Smurfs. I think I'd get rich because lots of moms and dads would buy them for their sons. Since I got the idea, all I have to say to my 15 year old is "ponies" and he knows exactly what I'm talking about