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Hornaday Award => Distinguished Conservation Service Award


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I hope Hornaday's conservation work was reviewed and also a factor. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/11/11/142211950/what-not-to-do-when-you-meet-the-last-great-wild-buffalo IMHO,

For more than a century, the BSA has encouraged and honored conservation work with an award that recognizes youth, adults and organizations who have demonstrated tremendous effort and commitment to th

Displaying a caged African in a zoo? In the Monkey House? Yeah, "controversy" is doing some heavy lifting there.

On 11/14/2020 at 9:20 PM, mrjohns2 said:

You must not have followed the links. There is still an adult award. The unit award was odd to me as it didn't seem to fit in. They are saying units should earn the Conservation Good Turn certificate, which already existed. https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/conservation-and-environment/conservation-good-turn/

I did follow the links. There's still an adult award but it's basically the Hornaday Gold Medal which required 20+ years of work. The Hornaday program also had a badge adults could earn after just three years. https://www.bsacac.org/my_files/william_t_hornaday_gold_badge.pdf

Jeremy

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On 11/16/2020 at 10:52 AM, jeremyschultz said:

The Hornaday program also had a badge adults could earn after just three years.

Thanks for the info. I only know of the one, but there were actually 3 that adults could get.2009 Document that has a nice grid showing all 7 awards The old Gold Badge didn't include the right to wear the knot, so maybe that is why I hadn't heard of it. It was hard to find the difference between the adult Gold Badge (badge & certificate) vs. adult Gold Medal (metal, certificate, and knot) vs. Gold Certificate (certificate). 

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The New York Time has a better explanation of what happened to Ota Benga. Wikipedia tends to see things with todays lens and not what it was like 100 years ago. 

 

Ota Benga was free to wander the zoo as he pleased. Sometimes he helped the animal keepers with their jobs. In fact, Hornaday described the African as being “employed” by the zoo, though there is no record he was ever paid. He spent a lot of time at the Monkey House, caring for Mr. Verner’s one surviving chimp and bonding as well with an orangutan named Dohong.

Contrary to common belief, Ota Benga was not simply placed in a cage that second weekend in September and put on display. As Dr. Bradford and Mr. Blume point out, the process was far subtler. Since he was already spending much time inside the Monkey House, where he was free to come and go, it was but a small step to encourage him to hang his hammock in an empty cage and start spending even more time there. It was but another small step to give him his bow and arrows, set up a target and encourage him to start shooting. This was the scene that zoogoers found at the Monkey House on the first day of the Ota Benga “exhibit.”

The next day, word was out. The headline in The New York Times read: “Bushman Shares a Cage With Bronx Park Apes.” Thousands went to the zoo that day to see the new attraction, to watch him carry on so amusingly, often arm in arm, with Dohong the orangutan.

 

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4 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

But we can, with today's lens, choose to no longer honor the person that did even somewhat despicable things. It is a choice. 

Of course. But, I wonder, should I be shamed for reading To Kill A Mockingbird in high school back in the 70's? Should the school be shamed? Let's burn it all.

Shesh.

Barry

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9 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

Of course. But, I wonder, should I be shamed for reading To Kill A Mockingbird in high school back in the 70's? Should the school be shamed? Let's burn it all.

There is a big difference, to me, between reading a period book and honoring someone, who by modern standards, should not be honored. Such honors are not frozen in time. The book, though, can be read and talked about in context since that is one of the points of reading the book.  I guess the act of reading a book doesn't put the person on a pedestal. 

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8 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

There is a big difference, to me, between reading a period book and honoring someone, who by modern standards, should not be honored. Such honors are not frozen in time. The book, though, can be read and talked about in context since that is one of the points of reading the book.  I guess the act of reading a book doesn't put the person on a pedestal. 

Your lens doesn't see the heart of man, just actions in a sliver time. Without the heart, anyone (everyone) is a victim or abhorrent, depending on the mood of the viewer. Nobody is safe with that lens. 

Barry

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45 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

 I wonder, should I be shamed for reading To Kill A Mockingbird in high school back in the 70's? Should the school be shamed? 

Yes you should.  My students read TKAM in seventh grade.  What took you so long?

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6 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

But we can, with today's lens, choose to no longer honor the person that did even somewhat despicable things. It is a choice. 

That is a very slippery slope.  By your reasoning, through today's lens (or the lens we would have foisted upon us by certain factions), we actually should remove any honors for many of the founders of this country.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery-1269536

We should judge people based on their own times, not ours...

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

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1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

That is a very slippery slope.  By your reasoning, through today's lens (or the lens we would have foisted upon us by certain factions), we actually should remove any honors for many of the founders of this country.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery-1269536

We should judge people based on their own times, not ours...

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

We are really getting off topic.  The criteria for the various awards have changed drastically,i.e., the unit award is reviewed and awarded by National (no longer within the jurisdiction of the council).  Can we focus on these types of topics rather than the useless mental exercise being displayed above?

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