An unafraid politician

[eisely]

Here is at least one elected official who publicly endorses boy scouts. I can't imagine an elected official here in the San Francisco Bay area doing this.

_________________________-

 

Sanford stumps for local Boy Scouts fund-raiser

 

By Kelly Marshall

 

The Sun News

 

 

A fund-raising campaign for local Boy Scouts received a boost Monday night from Gov. Mark Sanford.

 

Sanford, former president of the Coastal Carolina Council, Boy Scouts of America, stopped by the TPC Golf Club in Murrells Inlet to ask for support and donations for the Scouts in the Black River District.

 

Money raised through the fund-raising campaign will pay for the district's scouting events and activities.

 

"Scouting can make a real difference in a child's life," Sanford said. "The principals of scouting are unbelievably important."

 

Sanford, an Eagle Scout, sat with other long-time Boy Scouts Kendall Buckner and Marshall Bryant.

 

"Scouting creates good moral judgment," Buckner said. "It's up to us as parents and adults to teach the right choices."

 

Alan Walters, the Black River district chairman, presented Sanford with several gifts and said two Boy Scout scholarships would be named in Sanford's honor.

 

The governor gave up his position with the Coastal Carolina Council during his run for governor but still praises the effect it has had on his life.

 

"The scouting program trains young leaders," Sanford said. "It teaches persistence."

 

The Black River District is in the Coastal Carolina region. It also includes Boy Scouts from Georgetown, Charleston, Goose Creek, Summerville and Beaufort.

 

"I appreciated him being here," said Boy Scout leader Reed Worrell. "Scouting is something that just kind of stays with you."

 

 

[Big_Dog]

Queer eye for the Scouting Guy will now have a new target....

[NJCubScouter]

I don't see anything he said as particularly conttoversial. Or is it just the fact that he spoke at a BSA fundraiser? I doubt that he is the only governor, senator or congressman who has done this.

[NWScouter]

I posted this a while back. Here is another politician who supports Scouting.

 

Henry M. Jackson Heritage Auction

November 8, 2003

926 words/MSW

 

 

Good evening. I am honored to be here. Honored to be at this event whose namesake, Scoop Jackson, played such a significant role in the history of both Washingtons. And honored to have this opportunity to talk about scouting.

 

As I stand here this evening, my mind is filled with the memories of my development as a Boy Scout.

 

It all started with a camping trip I took with my Aunt and Uncle when I was just five years old.

 

I will never forget the sense of awe I felt as we walked in the rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula. The thrill of standing beside a wild river waiting for a fish to strike. The feeling of being in another world, a beautiful world with all kinds of new sights and sounds and smells.

 

 

My camping trip had fired me with enthusiasm to explore the outdoors. But my parents ran a grocery store that was open seven days a week. They worked very long hours and worked very hard. No vacations, no time off. It was extremely difficult for my Dad to break away from the store and our familys livelihood to take me camping. So my parents urged me to join the Boy Scouts. I jumped at the chance.

 

Scout leaders became an extended family, and Scouting was a great adventure.

 

I enjoyed scouting from the start. I felt the same sense of pride and accomplishment earning my first merit badge as I did finishing my Eagle Scout service project. I will never forget the look on my parents faces, beaming with pride at my Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

 

Its hard to make it all the way to Eagle Scout, as you all know. There were so many competing interests. School, sports, cars. And girls. On average, only four out of every hundred scouts earn the rank of Eagle. I am very proud to be among them.

I became active in the Order of the Arrow. Through all my high school and most of my college summers, I worked at Camp Omache in the Cascades.

 

Even now, many of my dearest friends and most enjoyable memories are from my Scouting days.

 

I am immensely proud of my years in Scouting. And I am forever grateful for the nurturing I received, and for all that Scouting has helped me become.

 

Scouting has always been one of Americas most reliable developers of character and leadership. It teaches the ethic of service, and the discipline to get any job done.

 

And Boy Scout leaders have always been generous not just with their money,

but with a far more precious resource --their time.

 

To millions of kids like me, that has made all the difference.

 

Todays youth desperately need people to make a difference in their lives. Never have the pressures and challenges been greater.

 

The information explosion, an affluent society, and greater mobility make trouble easier to find. Pervasive pop-culture icons and pseudo-values make it easier for young people to believe they arent measuring up, arent cool enough, arent good enough.

 

Hard-working parents and over-burdened teachers make individual attention and quality time elusive. These factors are a formula for bad decisions and dire, lasting consequences.

 

Too often, kids today spend their free time with a video game, cable TV show, or Internet chat site. A drug or a gang or a street scene. These are not good ways to become all that one can be.

 

The era of big government is over. Here in Washington, the number of state employees is droppingwe have one of the lowest percentages of state employees per capita in the nation. Tough economic times have restricted our ability to do all the things wed like to do as a state. Increasingly, we must rely on strong communities and organizations like the Boy Scouts of America.

 

Scouting has never been more important. And it has never been more important to support programs like this that help young people.

 

Young boysand now girlslearn many life lessons from Scouting. The American spirit of adventure and the gift of self-confidence. An abiding love of our environment. Compassion and caring toward others and the desire to help. Optimism, appreciation of diversity; and a lifelong commitment to service. And a sense of personal responsibility and self-discipline.

 

Scouting creates heroes. Not just those who perform death-defying acts of bravery, although scouts have been known to save the day and face danger to help others.

 

No, the truly valuable heroism scouting teaches is everyday heroism. The everyday heroism that makes a good and active citizen, day in and day out for the whole span of their lives. Reading books to children. Creating opportunities for young people. Caring for neighbors. Speaking out for those who are unable or afraid to speak for themselves. Working on community projects. And building strong, safe and friendly neighborhoods.

 

Scouting trains the future leaders well need to make our country all that it can be in the years ahead.

 

Once a Scout, always a Scout. In my duties as a governor and as a dad, I rely heavily on those tried and true principles of Scout Law: Trustworthy; Loyal, Helpful; Friendly; Courteous; Kind; Obedient; Cheerful; Thrifty; Brave; Clean; Reverent. I try to remind myself daily of these principles. They serve as an invaluable guide to my actions and decisions. Scouts like me will be forever grateful to the Boy Scouts of America. You are making a big difference, and an invaluable contribution to our youth and to our country.

 

God Bless you, and thank you.

 

[NJCubScouter]

NW, unless I missed it, you did not identify who made that statement. Is it Gary Locke? (It wasn't too difficult to put together his references to himself as governor, the state you (NW) are from, the Henry Jackson references and the fact that the speech shares some sentences (but not the whole thing) with the Gary Locke speech linked-to by Shell in another thread.)

 

It is interesting to note that while Governor Locke says positive things about the BSA, he has also made statements criticizing the BSA's exclusion of gays. (I posted the link in the thread, "What do you say?" ) This shows that you can support and/or be a part of the BSA and still want them to change that particular policy (like me and Governor Locke.) And, with all respect to eisely, I think it also undercuts the point on which this thread is apparently based. The idea I get from eisely's initial post is that it takes some great amount of bravery to publicly endorse the Boy Scouts, and the implication is that this bravery is required because of the BSA's anti-gay policy. I don't really think that's true at all, and here is Governor Locke, simultaneously praising Scouting overall but criticizing this one policy, which is out of step with what Scouting is really all about. Or is Governor Locke being brave and cowardly at the same time?

[NWScouter]

It is Gov. Locke. I was at the dinner.

Out here we don't discuss the gay issue too much at scouting events as opinions are about evenly divided among adult scouters and some get really get hot. Most large businesses and government bodies out here recognize 'domestic partners'.