OldGreyEagle

OOPs, you know this is the Disabilities Awareness MB thread, I guess I got off track again. Then again, as well all know, not being able to keep on task is a definite ADD trait...

Rooster, did you know ADD is familial prone? Doesnt quite mean there is an ADD gene, but it does mean it runs in families. And yes, I am ADD, as a child all I remember is being told what "potential" I had if I would only apply myself, what talent I had if I would only concentrate. Well, I was one of the lucky ones, I was able to work around my tendency not to be able to focus. others in my classes were not, they were labeled inncorrigible and behavior problems and faced discipline after discipline. It wasnt their fault. Proud of my son? You have no idea, I can remember one of him operations that didnt go well, he had a mixture of blood, stool, and urine oozing out of his incision site and a hour 20 minute ride to Childrens Hospital in Philly. I remember seeing him with 4 IV pumps and more tubes than two people should have inserted in him. Now he is tall, (almost as tall as I, thin, (well the illness has kept his father's profile away thus far) and a great sense of humor, am I proud of him?? You bet, I think he belongs on the cover of Boys Life, but they had no interest, I beleive he belongs on the cover of Scouting magazine, but they had no interest. Yes I am very proud, then again, as his father I could just be overreacting...

Mike, you may have hit on a point. As much as I normally dislike PC terms, and the over all concept of Political Correctness, the movement may have one good point. The term disabled is supposed to be replaced with the phrase "other-abled" and I beleive this does fit the people I seen discussed here. Now, just because I like one PC term, dont any of you think I am going soft. Paul, you commented that in your area all non-mormon troops have disabled kids, can you expound on that?

Our Troop has a boy who is usually confined to a wheelchair, although he can go a few yards in a walker. He also earned 12 merit badges over the summer. When our troop goes to summer camp, our Committee Chair, who is a Pediatrician, always has two foot lockers, one for her gear and another for the presription drugs she must dispense, with a heavy percentage on ritalin like drugs. Then there is my son. He recently made Eagle. He is ADD, Dyslexic and was born with a urinary tract defect. He has had to endure approximatley 10 major abdominal operations.Since age 10 he has not urinated thorough his penis. For awhile he had his ureters (tubes that drain the kidneys) connected to his colon. He would defecate and urinate at the same time. During this time he never missed a single campout unless he was in the hospital with recuurent kidney infections, and went backpacking many times. Believe me, thats not an easy burden for a young scout to bear. At age 14 (he is 16 now) the physicians took what was left of a poorly formed bladder and part of his colon and his appendix and created a new bladder with a dry stoma opening to the outside. He must cath the stoma every 3-4 hours with a straight tip catheter and at night he sleeps with a urinary drainage bag. He has been a patrol leader for 2 years, was a patrol leader at the National Jamboree and got to parade with his contingent winning patrol flag down by the stage and is presently the Senior Patrol Leader of our troop. Here is one extremely non-ignorant scout leader about disabilities and it sounds like there are many others like myself. We dont spend time talking about our scouts disabilities, we are helping them advance and work through the challeneges they face

Try http://www.macscouter.com/macscouter/Eagle/index.html it is in the MacScouter website and is one of the most comprehensive resources I have seen on Eagle Court of Honor's. As luck/fate/serendipity would have it I am also in the midst of planning my sons Eagle Court of Honor. We would have preferred an outdoor one, but November in pennsylvania doesnt lend itself well to this goal. What about doing it at dusk, as the daylight fades you light a single candle, that of scout spirit, and then light three more as the scout oath is recited for the three points of the scout oath. The 12 more candles as the scout law is recited. Then a comment can be read about how a single flame of scout spirit is multiplied when the whole of scouting is applied. My son has fallen in love with the Eagle Challenge Ceremony, it is quite interactive. Its in the macscouter Eagle book

I also love Follow Me Boys, I got a copy off Ebay at an outrageous price. It is listed as Out Of Print (OOP) by Disney which consistently says it has no plans to release it. I would think the movie would be a natural to sell in the Scout Shops with some proceed going to the council that sells it. I showed my copy on a bus trip, the kids where almost comatose, but the adults thoroughly enjoyed it. It is pure Disney, with a little town, no little girls ever seen and just boys being boys. I reccommend it for not just the scouting values, but also for a snapshot of innocence long since gone. Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles, Vera Miles and of course Fred McMurray as the scoutmaster. Included is a prepubescent Kurt Russell, I told the boys to think of it as Snake Pliskin's childhood. The boys professed to have hated it, but somehow, the phrase "follow me boys" has crept into our troops lexicon. Disney does show it latenight, so keep an eye on the listings and keep you recording devices handy.

As far as I am aware, there are no specific requirements for an Eagle Court of Honor. The Eagle Rank is approved by National and once notification of Naitonal's decision to approve the Eagle application is made to the local COuncil, the scout is an Eagle. Our troop has a tradition of each scout planning his own ceremony. Nothing is required except the script be approved by the troop committee.

As I understand The United States Code, title 36 section 176 states "no disrespect shall be shown o the flag of the United States". Having Boy Scouts salute the flag while reciting the pledge of Alligiance and saluting does not show disrespect.

PS Rooster I dont believe you have to apologize for your passion, heaven knows I dont for mine.

Rooster, AMEN! To hear Baden-Powell describe the scouting movement in his own words, try this link, you will need real player http://www2.chsscout.net/rescenter/video/index.shtml#section4

Rooster, Where in my posting did I disrespect the military? To "quible" over whether or not a saluting Boy Scout should be vocalizing the Pledge of Allegiance is silly. I can picture nothing more patriotic. To argue whether or not Boy Scouts is paramilitary is also silly. We salute the flag ( in respect to it and the Armed Forces who defend it) We have ranks We have Reveillie We have post the colors We retire the colors We have taps We have the troop "fall in" We have Courts Of Honor We Have Boards of Review We follow a military model of organization. Our founder was a military man, and a well gifted one as well. I see nothing wrong in admitting we have a military heritage. At the National Jamboree the Order of the Arrow had a wonderful presentation called "Scoutopia", in it was a quote about the slovenly manners of today's youth and it listed may bad habits, and it was also attributed to Socrates. I have faith in todays youth to perform as need be as well as I have faith that they will be given role models to follow my our generation

In the words of the renown Monty Python's Flying Circus, Isnt this all a little bit silly? Whether or not its proper for Boy Scouts to salute the flag AND pledge allegiance? We have several ex-military fathers in the troop and one Army Reservist Leut. Colonel and he has never complained. Has any troop had a service man complain? Whether or not Baden-Powell meant the scouts to be a paramilitary unit ? With all the issues that face the country and scouting, we choose this to quibble over? Next thing you know the discussion will be what side of my Eagle square knot needs to be closest the center of my shirt.

This can be a real problem, we had one boy talk to a girl class mate who is nearly blind for reuqirement 2. The resulting crush shook the boy up, he was trying to get a merit badge and she had had attention paid to her by a boy for the first time. He didnt know how to respond to her reaction. This taught us all a lesson to be sure everyone knows whats going on.

Well, I was always told by my Commitee chair that a Board of Review was to have at least 3 Troop (unit) committee members on it and that the scoutmaster and asst scoutmasters could not attend. I resigned as a Asst Scoutmaster and became a Commitee member because I wanted to be "in on" the advancement process. This link http://www.meritbadge.com/bsa/info/policy4.htm is from meritbadge.com and it titled "National BSA Policies Related To Boards Of Review" FRom this site "This board of review is made up of at least three and not more than six members of the troop committee. One member serves as chairman, usually the committee member responsible for advancement. Unit leaders, assistant unit leaders, relatives, or guardians may not serve as members of a Scout's board of review." I guess you could have more people at the board of review than just Committee members, but the way this is written I would say the Troop COmmitee is vested in approving advancement. Certainly wihout 3 members of the committes involvement, a scout cannot advance.

One of the more important responsiblities of a troop committee is to conduct Board of Reviews, and give the final stamp of approval to a scouts advancement. During the Boards of Review the scout has a chance to express what he likes and dislikes about the program and adjusts may be made if the same comment comes up enough. Our commitee has a Popcorn Chair, Transportation Chair, Advancement Chair (as in keeping track of), Treasurer, SHopping Chair (she doesntr do it, but she takes the kids with her, brave woman)Quatermaster Chair (we have scout quartermasters but he decides what can be fixed and what needs to be pitched) and then we plan the program. We go into the year with a schedule and as dates come up a trip leader is tapped and they get the tour permits, directions and work with transportation chair. We have 80 kids in the troop and if not for our 39 adults our scoutmaster would be in the looney bin;

And the link to the USSSP is: http://www.usscouts.org/GoScouting/start.asp

I am not sure how much about Boy Scouts you know, but check this, its to the "Order of the Arrow" web site. The Order of the Arrow is an Honor organization within Boy Scouts that performs service. http://www.oa-bsa.org/ also try the USSSP (United States Scouting Service Project) and search for Order of the Arrow topics and Native American topics, happy hunting

Read this: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/14/Falwell.apology/ hate is hate

After reading the comments that the Rev Jerry Falwell made about gays, and lesbians and the ACLU being to blame for tuesday's attack and that God had lifted the protective curtain from our country, it strikes me that maybe its time to let homosexuals in Boy Scouts if for no other reason just to cheese him off

In the name of research, I tried the address meritbadge.org and it does look like a porn site. meritbadge.com however appears to be alive and functioning (its one of my favorite sites)

Well Jm. to paraphrase a philosopher's statement, "The boys get the Scouting experience their parents deserve". I wish your old troop well and I wish you well in all your endeavors, especially Scouting. Somehow though, I think your old trrop will need more wishes than you will...

Does everyone have the same problem with the iniform shorts? The kids absolutely hate and for good reason. They are the most umcomfortable pieces of clothing i can think of. If BSA ever redid the shorts on the order of the Venturer shorts, which look like normal shorts, I am sure they would re-short the entire youth membership. They would make millions of sales with the replacement of the now hated shorts. Of course this is my opinion I could be wrong,

Many times the reason a core group of individuals HAS to hold things together is because by their own non-intentional actions they exclude new comers. New people may want to be invovled, but the same people do the same things year after year and effectively shut out new people. Often this occurs without the veterans realizing it. The the veterans aer upset no one new will help and the potential new blod is upset there is no way to crack into the leadership herd. Every new group of scouts has some parents who want to be involved, seek them out, assign them duties, small at first and then increase. This way the new faces ease the burden on all and assimilation occurs almost painlessly

I like the idea of a nice peaceful not "protest" but a celebration of who we are and what we stand for. Flag day this year is on a Friday. What say as many scout troops in full dress uniform and their families and supporters peaceably assemble at the town halls or other appropriate places and sing The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Your a Grand Old Flag, America the Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, ETC. Then perhaps each faith represented in the troops sing their favorite religious song. If each troop would then retire an American Flag with respect and dignity, I think the images throughout the country would be awe inspiring I would like to see how the liberal press could twist a good celebration of the flag done on flag day by a group of prejudiced discriminatory pigs (their characterization not mine) People see "the Boy Scouts" as the "old homophobic adults", lets show them the innocence of 11 and 12 year old eyes and the pride and strength of the older scouts. I have a slogan for the event, A Celebration of Old Glories

I like Celebrate Diversity of Ideas... I was wondering, what are traditional values? Of the Judeo-Christian or Islamic or Budhist or Hindu or Shinto nature?