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Well, National discontinued this medal after all. No announcement, no community feedback, no phasing it out so as to allow Scouts actively working on it to complete it. What a shame.

You all speak my mind.  The folks that want to believe without research or believing their own eyes and ears  have , it seems, always been with us.  One episode from my way past history sticks with me.... Way back in 19 and 66, our HS english class somehow (I forget why, maybe it was close to a holiday) got to discussing WW 2.  Our english teacher , Mr. Emler, let the discussion flow where it would.  One of my classmates, he was a football "star" , spoke up and declared that the Holocaust was fiction, made up by a Jewish conspiracy...  Mr. Emler got very quiet, sat down on the edge of his desk and proceeded to tell us of how his Army unit had been among the first to enter, "liberate",  Buchenwald.  The class got very quiet. The footballer never spoke up again.    It was not until much later that I made the connection, that Mr. Emler, and indeed many of the men, and women , I knew and admired were of "that age".  My first SM had been in the army, but I never knew much about that. Our local Sea Scout Ship was Skippered by an old  Chief Bosun's Mate. The local Sea Scout Regatta is named after him.  And then we ignore what is right in front of us, and hope for the best.... 

So, we should find ways to expose them without trying to influence them seems the answer.  How to do that is not clear, as I have been accused of being "woke" and also disrespectful when I have pointed out what seems to me to be blatant bending of our ruling documents and poor examples being portrayed by elected people.  I will not call them leaders, though I guess that too could be considered disrespectful.  A very fine line and hard to toe.  

@acco40 short answer: yes. Half of that audience became  of voting age, and the majority likely voted in favor of the challenger. The incumbent did not present at the ‘23 Jambo. A smaller portion of the audience became of voting age, and the majority of those voted for the challenger. Regardless, “sheltering” scouts from our nation’s leaders (and what thoughtful opinions we may have of them) is an immoral capitulation to memes.  

We could start by screening out certain influences that the BSA should not give a platform too.  Are these appropriate comments to give to 40,000 BSA youth? “Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. You set a record.” “I said, ‘Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?’ Right?” “Today, I said we ought to change it from the word ‘swamp’ to the word ‘cesspool’ or, perhaps, to the word ‘sewer.’” “Many of my top advisers in the White House were Scouts. Ten members of my Cabinet were Scouts. Can you believe that? Ten.” “Some of you here tonight might even have camped out in this yard when Mike was the governor of Indiana, but the scouting was very, very important.” “We’re doing a lot with energy.” “He better get them. Oh, he better – otherwise, I’ll say, ‘Tom, you’re fired.’ I’ll get somebody.” “As the Scout Law says: ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal’ – we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.” “I’m waving to people back there so small I can’t even see them. Man, this is a lot of people.” “By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero?” “By the way, just a question, did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?” “I’ll tell you a story that’s very interesting for me when I was young. There was a man named William Levitt – Levittowns, you have some here, you have some in different states.” “Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life. So – look at you.” “He so badly wanted it, he got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all of the things he did in the south of France and other places.” “And in the end he failed, and he failed badly. Lost all of his money.” “I saw him at a cocktail party, and it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party.” “You have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum, and if you don’t have it, that’s OK. Because you’re going to go on and you’re going to learn and you’re going to do things that are great.” “I have to tell you our economy is doing great.” “Do we remember that date? Was that a beautiful date? What a date.” “But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn’t know what to say?” “And you know we have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College – popular vote is much easier.” “I went to Maine four times because it’s one vote, and we won. But we won – one vote. I went there because I kept hearing we’re at 269.” “But then Wisconsin came in. Many, many years – Michigan came in.” “Wisconsin hadn’t been won in many, many years by a Republican. But we go to Wisconsin, and we had tremendous crowds. And I’d leave these massive crowds. I’d say, ‘Why are we going to lose this state?’” “So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again.” “And by the way, under the Trump administration, you’ll be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again when you go shopping. Believe me. ‘Merry Christmas.’” “They’ve been downplaying that little, beautiful phrase. You’re going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, folks.” “I promise you that you will live scouting’s adventure every single day of your life, and you will win, win, win and help people in doing so.” “I’ve known so many great people.”