Hasta La Vista BSA and SEMPER FI!: A Final Memorandum From Pappy

[DeanRx 69]

NWScouter-

 

Thankf for the link info... hadn't run across that one yet. I was only half serious about the faux firearms idea. However, I do have a question...

 

"The wearing of special helmets, scarves, gloves, unofficial leggings, and the carrying of ceremonial guns or swords by members of such organizations using the uniforms of the Boy Scouts of America is in violation of the Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America."

 

unofficial leggings?... does that mean there are OFFICIAL LEGGINGS to the BSA uniform? Never heard of such a thing!

 

Think we'll go with the other boys carrying the Den Flags behind the U.S. Flag and Pack Flag.

[Gold Winger 9]

Yep, look at the cover of the Sixth Edition of the Boy Scout Handbook.

 

http://www.scouting.org/Media/95thAnniversary/~/media/Images/media/anniversary/art/1959s.jpg.ashx

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Fezini said go back to the beginning...

 

Boy Scouts are not military or paramilitary, B-P said so and you can hear him say so

 

http://www.thescoutingpages.org.uk/speeches.html

 

BP's Message to the Public

[Mr. Boyce 13]

Just a clarification. I'm no lefty. I think as a boy ("youth") I really liked being in the woods, and time spent fiddling with clean uniforms and uniform exactitude smacked of school. I'd rather hike.

 

I like very much scout bugling, and I think scout flag teams make a lot of sense. And hey, I appreciate the military as much as anyone.

[Lem 10]

Hi Ya Fellas,

 

It seems to me that Left or Right, soldiering and military matters are a bit transcendent to politics and whatever your particular economic theory. You get the goose-steppers in North Korea and Nazi rallies, and the silent drill team at Arlington. There is a beauty in martial discipline that appeals to most people. We look on and marvel at the bravery of Spartans whose culture in many ways we would judge abhorant to our 21st century sensibilities.

 

Even the word 'exercise' comes from the Roman Latin word for Army. We live in a martial civilization (you can argue that these two terms are a coexisting organism and cannot exist without the other).

 

The vocation or at least fascination in things military may be genetically hardwired in many of us. Soldiering and war craft dominate the shelves at book stores, many cable TV shows, and even in supposedly leftie Hollywood.

 

Maybe Patton was right, and maybe he wasn't, but from where I can tell, as a kid I sure did like playing the soldier and the friends I hung with did too. And judging today from the new "sports" of laser tag and paintball and the violence and mayhem children are perpetuating in video games, and the continued popularity of cadet corps around the world, there are plenty of young people who share an interest in military organizations or at least in things to do with violent competition.

 

I think the anti-military out-look, especially the anti-American military, came out among left-leaning folks in the 1960's. a manifestation of the 1960's. Perhaps it was the admixture of leftist folk singers, bohemian Marx-reading college students, and hardcore socialist soviet intellectuals that lead to the blanket loathing of American police and military and other authority figures.

 

But the hypocrisy on the left can continue to be seen in the fascination and admiration of Che Guevarra and Fidel Castros and Black Panthers. These guys were pretty hard-core militant and continue to be the celebrities of a lot of supposedly "anti-military" and especially anti youth-military lefties.

 

Soldiering and an interest in soldiering are neither unhealthy nor are they unnatural. A lot can be learned (especially a lot of the core skills in traditional scout craft) when playing so called "war games".

 

But it is completely legitimate to be authentically uninterested in soldiering and things military, and it is a perfectly legitimate point of view to think that a scouting organizati0n should be allowed to promote an identity that is non-military.

 

The trick with scouting is that it has a genesis, a vernacular, and a skill set, that is very much martial in many respects. So there will continue to be correspondence with scouting and other organizations like cadet corps and jrotc and the like. It is nice to see that our American youth have so many options. But lets not belittle the folks who want to opt for an organization that enjoys a little marching and shooting and military culture. After all, mankinds organization towards military defence and its cultivation of martial arts is as much a part of our heritage as is our language, political institutions, religious identity, and our artistic and scientific legacy.

 

 

Lem