Stosh

That age limit is always a bummer. Picking a number out of the air and saying this is the cutoff will always be a concern for some. It's an unfortunate lesson we all have to learn. Having a palm will not make him a better person in the long run and letting him know that YOU think he deserves the palm even if BSA doesn't may gain a bit of mileage for the boy. This is always going to happen every time someone "changes the rules in the middle of the game".

Oops, missed that.... @hemispheres Welcome to the forum and best of luck with your new troop.

I chose the presidents according to historical facts and MLK wasn't a president. The hypocrisy of selecting which Honorary President can speak and which ones can't, isn't a historical fact, it's an infringement on free speech. To drop the position of Honorary President of the BSA is fine with me, but then that has an affect on any future president and what they might say that one might agree with. Over the past 50 years I have been exposed to a variety of different presidents. Some I agree with some I don't. One needs to be able to accept free speech for what it is and take it with a grain of salt. I don't find it necessary to express my opinions on other's free speech when it comes to my wife, family, friends, coworkers, or even people I meet on the street. It also applies to politicians as well. Like the weather, it's stormy here today, wait a day or so and the sun will shine. Move on, there's nothing here to get all that worked up about. It's been stormy in the past, it will be stormy in the future. And yes, I enjoy the sunny days more. I don't need to apologize for the weather or what other people say. One doesn't get bit if they just leave a sleeping dog lie.

They did what they said they would do in spite of all the flack from distractors. With all he "fake news", riots, hate speech, protests, and such, the economy is growing, unemployment is down and help wanted signs are posted on just about every other business in our town. All this amid the squalor of today's political culture. Lincoln was depicted as an ignorant backwoodsman from the frontier, Kenedy was rich and Catholic, King was black, yet their legacy came through. Never judge a book by the cover or what is said on the cover, ya gotta read it to get the full benefit.

Sometimes the best lessons in life come from our kids.

There will be thousands of times in life where people will say things I don't like or disagree with, but I will defend free speech every time. Dropping a sitting president from the historical tradition of Honorary President because of what he/she might say is tantamount to censorship. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. He was elected by 39% of the people, the lowest popular vote in US history. He was raked over the coals by pundits from both the North and the South. He had a down-home stile of conversation and called a spade a spade in a joking manner. When people complained when he put Grant in charge of the federal forces, that he had selected a drunkard, Lincoln responded by saying, if that be the case, send all my generals a case of whatever it is he's drinking. History has noted his actions as laudable, but it took a long time. If for one think today that JFK was one of our best presidents, a Democrat. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country is burned into my memory forever. MLK's I have a dream and I wish that dream to come true some day. How quickly we forget. I thought Regan was a buffoon until I started listening carefully to what he had to say. All these men were ahead of their time. Only time will tell and it will be based on what he does, not what he says that will make the real difference. And if anyone hadn't noticed, everyone of these great men were assassinated or attempted to be assassinated before they could even complete their destinies. It is truly unfortunate people can't see through their anger and hatred while in the moment. I hope history has a chance to break the cycle of what the US has done in the past to it's better leaders. When anger and hatred get a hold of things, bad things happen and in the end, everyone suffers. Would we be the same country today if it weren't for Lincoln, Kennedy, or King? How quickly we forget

@The Latin Scot, You have introduced a whole different topic than what this thread started out as. There is a world of difference between good manners and showing respect. A boy can begrugingly take off his hat, never say please, thank you, or excuse me, and when all is said and done, the hat whether he wears it or not doesn't really matter. This boy imay be showing respect with a simple gesture, but his manner scream rudeness at 120 decibels. I think there's a blending of different definitions here that makes the discussion kinda hard to discuss.. If taking one's hat off demonstrates respect, it has nothing to do with a Scout is Courteous, that's manners, not respect. Removing one's hat at the table is good manners. Taking it off when the Flag goes by, then it's respect.

You are starting out miles ahead of where I started. 2-3 boys, no gear but a good CO. After 4 years we are up to a small handful of boys, a bit of equipment (all hand-me-downs) and yet the boys are doing well. We make it to camp every year and it only costs the boys $50 each, the rest is raised with popcorn and other fundraqisers. I started out with nothing more than a "section" of town that "needed" a scout troop. We are surrounded by 5 other troops, all stretching into the section. It is a economically depressed area of town. We've been at it for 5+ years now. (The in years is because the first year or so we ran the program without being a registered troop because we didn't have 5 boys to form the troop. The hardest part is when my boys go to a district/council/summer camp event, they see the trailers, the new equipment, the matching tents, the fancy this and that, it's quite a bummer for them, but they soldier on anyway. The other 5 troops still tend to raid any feeder packs that could offer more boys that they have traditionally fed from and it's hard to recruit boys to a new troop verses an Eagle Mill, well entrenched program that tend to be generally adult run. We pick up most of our boys from the neighborhood that haven't had a Cub experience. Even the boys from the pack of our CO don't often join because they get lured away with the razzle dazzle of and easier scouting experience. It is difficult not having older boys in the troop. So even though I, too, started a new troop, the dynamics are far different than what you are starting with. Best of luck with your new troop!

As long as your son had a great time, the rest is not important. There's always going to be a negative side to every event this large. As long as the majority of issues were positive, or even if he only took home one really exceptional experience, it's a win. We spend too much time on the negative, celebrate the positive instead. Hopefully airing out your vent will be enough so that you can enjoy the rest of the good stuff that went right. If you stay bummed out along with all the other parents, eventually it will become the focus of their experience. It's difficult to do, but one needs to work at it anyway. My Jambo experience was the Centennial in 2010. Sure there were plenty of things that went wrong. Heat, rain, discipline problems, lousy food, long walks, huge crowds, long lines, but when all was said and done. I had a good time. That's the part I choose to remember.

Unfortunately these awards boil themselves down into political photo ops. The troop that most deserves it will not enter the competition, they are too busy doing real scouting.

We get 90o's + 100% humidity with plenty of bugs up here too. It's part of the planned program. Drink water and don't worry about it. If the hot afternoon bothers, just wait until the mosquitoes come out at dusk and it cools down.

They lost control years back, they just haven't noticed it yet.

Looking at it in its entirety, I really don't think it has a lot to do with Scouting other than marketing the bling.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/07/28/time-has-come-for-every-red-blooded-god-loving-patriot-to-sever-ties-with-boy-scouts-america.html And so it begins...... (or at least continues....)

Kinda reminds me of the old adage: "Be Prepared" I heard somewhere along the line.

Back in the '50's when there was something on the TV I didn't care to be exposed to, I got up and changed the channel. Today, I just grab the remote and do the same thing. Somethings in life change, other things don't. I've dropped lots of people (including family members) off my FB account because I didn't care to be exposed to their free speech. It's not that hard to quietly walk away.

Hypocrisy is measured by how far one deviates from a fair and balanced approach. That sway can go either way. It's the sway that matters. I may not like what the band had to say anymore than what the President had to say. But calling out the sway to one side or the other only indicates my tendency to leave a balanced fairness behind. Staying "on bubble" takes a tremendous amount of tolerance, something people today don't seem to have much of.

I'd join just for the Social Dynamo merit badge!

There are two distinct reasons for showing respect. One external and one internal. I can be blocks away and stand still for a flag raising/lowering and people might stare and write me off as an addled old man staring off into space. Yet it is important for me (internally) to do that. Externally would stand and people can see why you might be doing that because of the direction I'm facing and what it is that I am watching. It's kind of like the same routine for the local parades. In recent years, all the American flag lines are at the front of the parade and everyone stands for that section of the parade. All subsequent units don't carry flags, but then along comes some float with a flag on it. Do you stand or sit? Take off your hat or reach for another cold one. I don't think it's any indication of respect when units go by with flag after flag and after a parade, one feels like they have enough aerobic exercise to last a month. Who's disrespecting whom? Put one flag at the front and let the spectators enjoy the parade without having to yo-yo with every passing unit. Again, this goes back to whether one is measuring the respect internally or externally. After 25 flag units having gone by, I'm thinking enough respect has been shown. Grab another cold one and don't worry about it.

My hats usually look like road-kill so "cool" is off the list. I don't mind hat head, and yes, I'm going bald. Those that are, know the importance of a hat on a sunny day. I can see why some people find hats irksome and often disrespectful, but there are hundreds of different ways to show someone respect. For those that don't wear hats at all, I'm sure they figured out a few of them over the years. Men no longer stand when a woman enters the room, Nor do they stand when a woman rises from the table to leave, they don't always walk on the street side of the walkway, nor do they hold doors for others. Most of the time guys don't hold doors for women unless they want to get "the Look" and is now even considered by some to show disrespect. With the rapidly changing cultural norms going on around us, we can't always rely on the tried and true of 50 years ago when it comes to social manners. I'm thinking that even a Scout helping an old lady across the street is a thing of the past. When it comes to showing respect, one can always rely on the old standard of a smile and be sure to say please and thank you. Those three things still speak respect in our culture. Hats? For some it's still a concern and I try to adhere to the standard a bit. I wear a hat all the time, but unless I'm going into a church or restaurant, I don't always remember to take it off. I don't even view it as an issue of respect except in church. Restaurants? I don't like to eat with a hat on, respect isn't even in the mix.

If our world went back to a 3rd world subsistence situation, the vast majority of people would die of ignorance.

I've been an outdoorsman all my life and PT isn't my forte. I know a lot of women who could do me great harm. To me, they need focus on knowledge. I can survive on a meal of roast rabbit and wile onions, a 250# "he-man" would starve to death on that diet. I may not be able to climb a 10' wall or carry a heavy load very far, but I don't find many 10' walls in the woods, nor would I in survival mode want to be expending a lot of necessary energy carrying around large logs. Can I survive in the wilderness? find food and water, make a shelter, build a fire? I don't have to be Charles Atlas to pull that off. I need knowledge and practical skills, not body building. Social Dynamo merit badge - I gotta get me one of those! Where's the emphasis on caring for others, like maybe a father would. Helping others vs. self-improvement. Nope, not for me. If the political structure of this country collapsed and the providing/protecting nature of manliness comes back into vogue, I really don't want a entrepreneurial social dynamo in my tribe.

At this rate, I would think it would be more appropriate for BSA apologizing for Citizenship merit badges instead. What in the world do they think Citizenship in this country is all about anyway?

I wonder how this will last before the women want in on it?

So has bowing to another when the meet, shaking hands, saluting, tipping one's hat, waving, pat on the back, and anyone of a hundred other gestures do the same thing. Why pick on hats? It's no longer customary that men are to wear hats in public as it once was.