BSA's Commitment to Act Against Racial Injustice

[MattR]

17 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I am celebrating the 24th anniversary of my 29th birthday this year!  29 is a great age to keep for the rest of your life 😜

I'm on my 3rd anniversary of my 29th anniversary of my 29th birthday.

[David CO]

16 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I am celebrating the 24th anniversary of my 29th birthday this year!  29 is a great age to keep for the rest of your life 😜

The senior years have some very enjoyable aspects to them.  I did middle age, and I'm enjoying where I'm at.  It's not my age that bothers me, it's the age I'm living in.  I totally feel that world was a better place, and is quickly going down hill.  It saddens me that the grandkids won't have what I had.

[InquisitiveScouter]

46 minutes ago, MattR said:

I'm on my 3rd anniversary of my 29th anniversary of my 29th birthday.

I'm going to have to take off my boots to count that high, aren't I??

[TAHAWK]

On 6/15/2020 at 9:18 PM, InquisitiveScouter said:

And this will be (or should be if equal treatment is the desired outcome) the final nail in the coffin of Native American-style regalia in the OA

The OA Lodge I joined followed the Lakota tradition.  Every other year we sent a group of 12-18 (2-3 station wagons) to the Res to be trained in Lakota dancing and ceremonies.   They did not want us to perform the Ghost Dance for religious reasons, and we did not.   I was trained as a drummer, not being graceful.

Of course, they were very conservative.

 

They routinely wore European clothing, ate European food, and drove motor vehicles.  It never occurred to me that they were engaged in  "Cultural Appropriation, " but this was back before PC.

 

American Indians were one of the few cultures not represented in our troop - except for the OA members.  The John Birch Society ( known to us as the "Birch John Society") regularly picketed Scout HQ in Santa Ana with three "beefs": 1) we trick-or-treated for UNICEF, which they claimed was a Commie front; 2) the World Brotherhood Merit Badge, which they saw as a scam to promote World Brotherhood; and 3) every troop in our Council was open to any youth who was the right age and would recite the Oath.  (Our troop of mostly service brats was a rainbow of cultures and religions.)

 

American Indians routinely name their sports teams in all-American Indian high schools, "Indians."

 

I eat "Mexican" food regularly, because I like it.  I got used to it growing up in Alta California.  if this be "Cultural Appropriation, " make the most of it.

 

My "Black" roomie  for two years in grad school loved spaghetti with meat sauce.  I was better at B-ball than he was, being merely poor at it.  He could not dribble without looking at the ball.

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 

 

Joe Biden asserts that he is the final arbiter of which persons are or "ain't" "Black."  

 

Thought police are anathema.  That was once a revolutionary idea.  Now the virtues of policing thought and expression are taught in "institutions of higher learning."  

 

Chicago set a new record for civilians shooting and killing civilians over the Labor Day weekend - 85 shot, 24 fatally.  Cleveland west of us, is on the way to a record murder rate.  I have not seen any uproar over this, just crying family.  Apparently not newsworthy.  CNN downgraded the Chicago Memorial  Day weekend toll to 39 shot and ten killed, and I find no correction.  Apparently, SBLM. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by TAHAWK

[MattR]

1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I'm going to have to take off my boots to count that high, aren't I??

If you have more than 29 fingers and toes than ... you're a centipede?

[David CO]

1 hour ago, TAHAWK said:

The OA Lodge I joined followed the Lakota tradition. 

If you are located East of Cleveland, why did your OA Lodge follow the Lakota tradition?  

[Sentinel947]

6 minutes ago, David CO said:

If you are located East of Cleveland, why did your OA Lodge follow the Lakota tradition?  

The Lakota had a significant period of time in Ohio, before they were forced to migrate by other hostile tribes. Not going to speak for @TAHAWK, but that might be why. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Sentinel947

[David CO]

1 minute ago, Sentinel947 said:

The Lakota had a significant period of time in Ohio, before they were forced to migrate by other hostile tribes. 

Thanks.  I thought Ohio was mostly settled by Miami tribes.

I suppose they couldn't choose the Miami, who were often referred to by the French as the Naked Indians.  I am told that the Miami were basically nudists, when weather allowed.  I can't see BSA going along with an accurate portrayal of Miami at OA ceremonies.

[Troop75Eagle]

What is going to happen to the OA in the coming years with its traditions and regalia?  I was in in decades ago but have no idea what has transpired since.  I might try to volunteer but it would probably helping keeping a site up do date for camping rather than too much interaction.

[Sentinel947]

16 minutes ago, David CO said:

Thanks.  I thought Ohio was mostly settled by Miami tribes.

I suppose they couldn't choose the Miami, who were often referred to by the French as the Naked Indians.  I am told that the Miami were basically nudists, when weather allowed.  I can't see BSA going along with an accurate portrayal of Miami at OA ceremonies.

By the time of the American colonies, and founding of the US, the Miami were one of the dominant tribes in Ohio. I'm not an expert on Native American history, but from my brief researching online, the Miami started in Wisconsin and expanded into the Ohio valley region. It seems like the Lakota may have originated along the Mississippi and Ohio valley and then migrated Westward. 

It doesn't seem like the "modern" (Post American) Lakota lived in the Ohio valley, but I'm already stretching the limits of my Native American history as it is. 

[yknot]

One day, a meteor hit the earth, and all the little amphibians and moles that were left poked their little heads up and said, "Wow. Things sure are different around here." 

It seems like about once a month, this is about how I feel. 

However, I am lucky enough to be human which, aside from viruses and cockroaches, is probably one of the most adaptable species ever to grace the earth. So, each time a meteor hits, I try to gather up all the young ones and figure out how to help us all learn how to navigate the new landscape because no matter how much things change it is still a beautiful world with good things and people in it, one of which is scouting.

 

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, MattR said:

centipede

Millipede, thank you!

[MikeS72]

7 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Millipede, thank you!

I guess I must be a millipede also then, since I hit 29, started over from scratch, hit 29 a second time, and am now about to hit 9 for the third time.

[TAHAWK]

3 hours ago, Sentinel947 said:

The Lakota had a significant period of time in Ohio, before they were forced to migrate by other hostile tribes. Not going to speak for @TAHAWK, but that might be why. 

On 6/15/2020 at 9:18 PM, InquisitiveScouter said:

 

Sorry about the look.  Site software problem.  Whatever I do, it takes me back to my first post today.

 

I was born in California and stayed there until I was twenty-two, except for 18 months in Canada and a Summer in Seattle.  

The Lakota told us their tribal tradition is that they once lived near the "Big River."

The Navajo, when we visited them,  told us their tradition was that, after they came up to this world from below, they crossed the White Lands, where there were white bears.

 

 

[ALongWalk]

Adding this to the conversation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-im-skeptical-of-the-boy-scouts-new-inclusion-initiatives/2020/06/19/9f4da7a8-b26a-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html

The writer is a former scouter and has a bi-racial son who earned Eagle. At the end of the day, if our movement is to thrive we have to help people to not be skeptical of the BSA’s desire to be inclusive.  That really comes down to each of us and our individual actions.