Troop75Eagle

I’ve thought on and off about getting ham license as a challenge to myself at age 52. Covid and travel have thumped that for a while. Considered bugling too but I’m afraid my wife would wrap it around my neck

That’s a great idea. I have looked at bugling again and that definitely has a long and meaningful tradition in scouting everywhere. I saw the Braden Powell scouting does Ham Radio

One of the difficulties in the past and today seems to be that upheavals and revolutions really have ill defined objectives except to upend the system and recreate a new system, often with the same results. It often ends up than anyone who represents or speaks against the new amorphous collective is suddenly an intolerable enemy of the state. Communism and Stalinism were certainly that way. when I briefly taught inner city high school, and was a substitute teacher in many public schools, I tried to show the impact of language. The Wannsee Protocols, Article 58 of the Soviet penal

Pulling down as many statues as they can lay hands on is unconscionable. I bet these people do t even know who grant is, let alone what he did. He was given a slave and then freed him. He came from an abolitionist family. Jefferson? Yeah, I understand the slavery part. Without those enlightened men operating in the turmoil of their day, these mob groups and anarchists driving them seem not to have an alternate vision of what the results would have been otherwise. I suppose we have to go back to the time when we have to buy up property to make parks that are accessible but priva

I still am flabbergasted by the anti-Catholic business. Recent scandals are one thing, but this long history of anti-catholic sentiment really boggles my mind. In the derp south I know it goes way back...a persistent source of shame among other ills in the south and I know Kennedy Their was hysterics about Kennedy being a cats paw of the Pope. I guess, just like the resurgence of anti-semitism , I have just not been aware all these decades and for the most part I’ve lived in the south. I guess I’m an example of why clusters of like minded people in the same socioeconomic strata need to get

There are a lot of things always at work and always simmering. First and foremost, there are people who love chaos and will actively do things or goad others into doing it.. That's fun for them. Then there are always the borderline personalities and unstable ones. I blame the internet and television for setting some of them loose in shootings. They are impressionable and feel empowered and I guess that's their chance for glory. I know of no REASONABLE way to deal with that issue. Such people have always been around and always will. Media is so interconnected that its not going

Dont forget the in betweens... Have wealth and power...hold onto it at all costs. Don't have wealth or power...get it at all costs but I admit there are a lot of people who would be happy in between.

thanks for the review. Thats the trouble with selective news. One or two stories is not indicative of much, but like many things, negative news travels best. If you recall Jack in the Box e-coli cases many years ago where people died, I still won't eat there. People looking for the slightest excuse to bolster a position will certainly gleefully use whatever comes their way but one would hope there is a conditional statement of a tiny instance.

I'll have to say I'm a little surprised the kids don't follow it. I know kids can be ugly and I've been told that the sexual dis-inhibition has reached all the way down to middle school. That is really shocking to me, but 40+ years is enough time for a lot of things to change in the interim. I suppose that its just naivete on my part.

didn't see the date. made me feel better to get it out..

I notice it was subscription only too. I don’t buy into it for a variety of reasons not least because I suspect that the scouts themselves everywhere are not acting in a racist manner. That is more a curse of the adults. I have no evidence either way to back my feeling up, but from an observation standpoint, I read of youth 18 and younger being more pro-active and accommodating in traditionally decisive matters. If I’m wrong, so be it and I’ll gladly (but sadly) accept the reality. If my hunch is correct, the differences that may exist are perhaps regional and based more on traditional ho

What is going to happen to the OA in the coming years with its traditions and regalia? I was in in decades ago but have no idea what has transpired since. I might try to volunteer but it would probably helping keeping a site up do date for camping rather than too much interaction.

I appreciate your thoughtful response. Instead of cherry picking, I will say there is much good to what you have written. Thoughtful, measured and Reasoned thinking is a welcomed approach here. The entire focus of this online series of forums is to maximize the scope of possibilities for successful scouting in times of change. That can only be done by acknowledging the experiences and reasoned thinking others bring to the table. Many of the comments have been borderline disrespectful and offer no solutions. We (Generally) might disagree on methods of successful scouting and

When I was in scouting, the very idea you just mentioned would neither have been suggested, imagined or tolerated. Military and law enforcement were structure, order and fun were honored tools for boys that resonated and still do. The people I knew and know were all very civic minded and almost all progressive. Many are professors. Your correlation and perhaps even veiled suggestion that killing, dividing and conquering were motivators is galling. most military is support, meaning cooks, nurses, doctors, truck drivers and so forth. Only a small part are direct combat. Many who

I enjoyed reading your thoughtful post. I too received my Eagle in the 80’s and had an all white troop. I was in Memphis if that means anything, Yet I never once heard the first racist or elitist word. 30+years does, however, play games with memory as I’m finding out. i am one who advocates local control but not as an excuse to discriminate. That’s how such statements come across...as a pale echo of states rights which has all sorts of nefarious baggage with it. i, and I suspect others, recognize that local people within the troop that are of a community and are parent

I hear what you are saying. But it must be remembered that affiliation is a choice people make. When I was in law school, the black professor from Georgetown law, also a Naval Intel Officer, asked the black students why they all sat together. It was a novel question. The answer was that it was a comfort and cultural identity factor. Who could begrudge them that? Are we going to tell someone in a troop to make people feel unwelcome? I doubt it though there are always jokers to prove me wrong. Are we going to tell someone they are wrong for choosing to go where they feel comfortable

With regard to pro law enforcement and military, I don’t think that it can be denied that scouting functions on several levels. The nuts and bolts of camping, skills, self improvement and develupment we with peers are very Much at the center. But, in a larger historical sense, scouting does have a different secondary role though it may be less commonly realized. It is definitely a child of nationalism. If you step back and think, it makes sense. The British Empire, American age of Imperialism, WW1 and 2, Cold War, etc. scouts trained and still trains youth for pro-American history m

I’m with you. This is precisely why local influence and control has to have the final word over fluctuating external pressure for ideology. Grandiose ideas are fantastic sounding and can whip up people in a frenzy, but in the trenches, one on one in a community and with each scout, it’s a different reality.

Hmm...the point being that action-reaction with increasing fervor is not scouting. Isolating the events of the video is hardly the point. The escalation of explosive politics and injecting that into BSA as has been occurring and ripping it asunder. That is the point.

Scouts has certainly been an agent of change, there is no question of that. The manner in which that change as it applies to scouts is what is at issue. While what you say regarding disenfranchisement and historical social ills is true, the idea of attempting to hijack parent and leader guidance in a one size fits all everywhere is not always the best approach. As will be noticed, the LDS certainly does not agree with a unilateral forced dictation. the real strength and power of Scouts lies in the local people. This sort of orders problem is becoming more and more prevalent and

I’m not a betting man on something like this. But at this point, it would be hard if not impossible to dispute the reason for the action. Everyone must accept that no place or activity is immune from the effects of explosive politics forcibly injected into everything. My statement isn’t a value judgement, just an acknowledgement of how the world has come to be in this country.

with regard to scouts being in danger, I will hasten to add this, if you go and google search for Albuquerque man chased down, you will see protesters chasing a solitary man, laying hands on and threatening to kill. As a last resort, the man pulls his own weapon and shoots. The circumstances are definitely a mixed bag of cause and effect but the point is the growing volatility, reaction and counter reaction. in Portland, Oregon, a statue of Jefferson has been toppled as racist. There is a lot that is going on that is assaulting Scouting traditions. Each day it gets worse it seems. Is

I will hasten to add this, if you go and search for Albuquerque man chased down, you will see protesters chasing a solitary man, laying hands on and threatening to kill. As a last resort, the man pulls his own weapon and shoots. in Portland, Oregon, a statue of Jefferson has been toppled as racist. There is a lot that is going on that is assaulting Scouting traditions. Each day it gets worse it seems. Isolated incidents do not make for a new norm. News is designed to be emotional and inflammatory and has become volatile to an extreme. Scouts is being dragged into this mire more and

I was twisting the knife because that’s what the Soviet NKVD had to be sure all units were in line Indeed! But there are lawyers and judges in scouts. That is where they step up to do what is needed.

I agree entirely. Every culture in history has emphasized that statement "Love your neighbor as yourself" (they vary a bit on God) If someone isn't willing to love their neighbor, no training, no pleading no cultural sensitivity , diversity training or even law will work. In that instance, they have decided. What seems to be occurring is a forced pill shoved down the throat with a bellows on a patient. Its as if one group of people believe the others don't know or are just too stupid to what is going on among communities. We have Citizenship in the Community, Nation and merit badges