Left Handed Smoke Shifter

[papabear]

I have just retired after 20 years in the Navy just this last year. Have spent 9 years as a Scoutmaster, Cubmaster, Den Leader, Committee Member, District Training Chairman, etc,etc. We have experianced Scouting in England, Germany, Italy, Sicily, Iceland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and now in Texas. I have seen HAZING both in the Military and in Scouting and there is only one way to address it. "ZERO" tolerance to "HAZING". But as others have said what about the "fun"? I'm a firm believer in tradition, I'm so thankful that I was one of the last "initiated" Chief Petty Officers but there were lines crossed during that initiation and it was "my" responsibility to bring it to the attention of those involved, just as it would be the responsibility of the Scoutmaster, adult leader, or PLC member or any other Scout to bring it to the attention of others and resolve the issue. If the fun is removed and behaviour not kept in check, we will lose boys as well as adults from our beloved Scouting. We are so quick to color everything as HAZING. Infriging on everyones rights. Second guessing everything that is said and done, that we just toss up our hands and say forget it, its not worth the grief. Please, adults be adults and take your part in the operation of a Den, Troop, Pack, or District for what it is suppose to be, role model, mentor, an example of what the boy should want to be.

OK, off the soap box, but gee folks can't fun still be had without hurting someone????

Papabear Sends

[dan]

Papa bear wrote Please, adults be adults

 

If only they could! Just because someone is an "adult" this does not make them "grownup" or responsible!

 

[Double Eagle]

"snipe hunts". We purposely went on snipe hunts as senior scouts to get away and do night stuff. We would also drag along other scouts. We did not use it as an initiation but a real way to see stuff at night. But, we did try to catch anything we heard or saw. One of the best things we did was go to the river where the gars came to the surface at night. We would shine our flashlights on them and watch their eyes glow red (no lie). Some of the younger scouts thought they were aligators. Keep in mind, Michigan didn't have aligators, I think. By day, we would try to fish for them with no luck. With the glowing red eyes, even nature, and our imaginaton, tried to fool us into thinking we saw aligators. Kind of like bull snakes acting like rattlesnakes. Was nature hazing naive scouts?

 

I'm left handed, I don't get the problem finding a left-handed smoke shifter. I've had one for years. A right handed one too.(This message has been edited by Double Eagle)

[red feather]

After reading 5 pages of responses to this issue I have to say I am a victum f the snipe hunt and the smoke shifter, shorelind, tent stretcher, etc. What it tought me was to evaluate, question, decide, and if the issue could not be logically quetined then ask question about the quest. Pick your targets!! and teach them this lesson. PC or not the youth you are in charge of to teach, lead, and help grow since many parents look at

scoutning as a "time away" are your responsibility. Would you want your child to be completey gullible???? We recently had an adult that fell for the left haned smoke shifter joke, he was on reservation staff, sad. teach your scouts to question, not accept at face value everything told to them, they are not cattle. You might be surprised at the result. To much coddelng will result in individuals that accept too much without question and then would wonder what happened"?"

[fboisseau]

Red Feather,

I think you have a point about how these types of jokes can teach people to question. I have found that in todays society too many people do not question what they are being told and expect things as fact without questioning them. I have been doing things like this to my kids in the family and now they will always verify something they are told if it does not make since. Now the thing I have been doing are not to the level of some of the trick played here (for example I have told them we were going to have chicken covered in flour and boiled in oil for dinner/fried chicken), so I kind of wish that there was a way to teach people to think and question things when they do not make sense. One of the problem I have had with this topic is the problem seeing how people could fall for some of these. I believe that I would not of fallen for some and I know that my kids would not fall for them.