SiouxRanger

Thanks to everyone who has welcomed me to this forum. I'd really rather never need to be here. My life has been Scouting. Worked at the local camp and Philmont a number of years. Three Eagle Scout sons. Multiple Philmont Treks. I care not about awards and knots and such. I've qualified for many knots, but won't apply. I care about what scouts see and do and what they learn. Other than earning Eagle, and my Philmont staff years, I have been blessed with 7 Mentor Pins (and perhaps another tomorrow, so I have been informed) and making a positive difference in the life of a boy (scout-and now girls, too) is what is important. And that is what Scouting is all about.

He has tangentially unpacked the abuse he was subjected to. It is more than I care to discuss, not feeling at liberty to do so, even concealing identifying details, and don't even care to contemplate, except to help me wrap my own mind around the degree and depths of the damage done. I believe that children remember most negative comments directed their way for life and those comments have some hanging presence or at least ghost-like shadows that surface from time to time and haunt them.. Inappropriate sexual activities-well, I cannot imagine the depths to which one who has been subjected to them have sunk emotionally at times during their life. I would think that suicide ideation is high on the list. This is serious. We are talking about mere, innocent children being subjected to an event or events of intense, unwanted, and unacceptable intrusion into their entitlement to their own personal emotional integrity. It is emotional rape if not also physical rape. Everyone is entitled to feel safe wherever they are. Physically and emotionally. My friend reports to me he has had weekly therapy session since I knew him as a teenager. Now being nearly 50 years later, me only being brought into the loop about 3 years ago. I was stunned when I learned. But I understand. Who wants to tell anyone of being subjected to such actions? "How can he be such a good friend if you only learn XXX years later?" He lives more than 1,000 miles away-left after college. We've communicated by emails and such, and when I learned, I flew out to meet with him. He is tough, but hurting and it has now, late in life, turned debilitating. I did not enjoy high school, and won't be attending perhaps my senior class' last reunion. I wasn't treated well by many in my class. I was a nerd, did well in mathematics, poorly in sports, chess champion, and was a Boy Scout. My experiences in high school, frankly, really hurt me. And to this day. However, with the public advent of sexual abuse in Boy Scouting, I now understand that however I feel about how I was treated in high school, it is NOTHING compared to the damage done to those who were sexually abused in the scouting program. I have two further comments. First, that those abused did nothing wrong. They did not fail. They are not weak. They clearly did not deserve what happened to them. They were targeted by predatory adults driven by their own impulses and motives, having superior age and knowledge, who planned their attacks. Lying-in-wait has virtually no defense. Children have no defense against such advantages. Second, those abused should have no shame. Cast off the emotional burden placed on you by the adult who targeted you. You just happened along and they attacked when the opportunity presented itself. If you had not happened along, they would have awaited another victim-you would have been spared, but another would be the victim in your place. You are merely the victim by accident. You are NOT responsible for the criminal intent or activities of adults. I am always struck by the wisdom and admonition of the Biblical quote: "That which you do to least of mine, you do to Me." I guess I do not understand how an organization which requires a religious component...

Hello All. New here-first post. I read these forums for hours and hours, and signed up to post this. So, as I understand the upshot of it all: 1. That National initially indicated that Local Councils would pay nothing and be protected but now the Local Councils are expected to pay $600 million which will result in the sale of hundreds of Local Council Camps and Council offices, though the National High Adventure Camps will be protected and survive. 2. That National initially indicated that Chartering Organizations would pay nothing and be protected but now Chartering Organizations are expected to contribute to the Settlement Fund in some amount (unknown to me) in order to be protected from all past claims. 3. That Chartering Organizations now see themselves, or soon will, that they are passengers on the liability train to Haydes courtesy of the BSA, thereby destroying the "Chartering Organization as sponsor of a scout unit" model. 4. That National's pension plan which pays pensions to retired Scouting Professionals, and will pay pensions to current Professionals, the single class of persons most benefited by National's decades-long concealment of the abuse problem, will be fully protected by the Bankruptcy Plan. (That is, the second most culpable group, after the perpetrators, will be fully protected whereas current scouts and future scouts will be prejudiced.) 5. That Local Council camps which serve the vast majority of scouts will be sold whereas the National High Adventure Bases which serve a small percentage of scouts will be preserved. And the National employees who work for those camps will retain their jobs and earn their pensions. 6. That after the dust settles, parents, volunteers, and dedicated Scouters will "pick up the slack" and help cover this catastrophe, the professionals suffering financially only if lay folks don't make good on the losses. 7. That current Council Executives have a choice of following National's directive that their Council pay the amount expected by National to the Settlement Fund (thereby hopefully sparing the council executive from the corporate ax and preserving their chances of the lucrative BSA pension, OR, bucking National by refusing to subject their council to paying what National demands, and sacrificing their career and their family's future.). And, won't all of them acquiesce to National's demands and thereby the camps be sold? As an aside- My very best friend only 2 years ago advised me that a Scoutmaster had abused him. That he has been in weekly counseling ever since. My friend holds a Phd. My friend has NOT filed a claim in respect of the program which my friend believes saved is life. I have another friend who credits Scouting as saving his life-and I am sure he is right. I am an Eagle and father of 3 Eagles. My Scouting resume is 4 pages long. I am deeply saddened by the damage done to innocent children, and to the dream that once was Camelot. Were I making the decision, first I'd liquidate National's pension plan, and then the High Adventure Bases. National policies got the Councils into this mess, and it should be the first to pay the price. The notion that Councils are "independent" of National is nonsense.