Grown man in a Boy Scout uniform .....rant

[Pack378]

Does anybody else get negative feedback from being a grown man in a Boy Scout Uniform? It seems like a bunch of people can't get around the messed up scout leaders who abuse kids, Homosexuals, and just in general being the "not cool" thing to do. I can't tell you how many times I have heard that "Boy Scouts is GAY". I know I can't change the image of scouting or the minds of negative people but I sure wish I could. Don't get me wrong, their are people out there who love scouting but the few that don't make a big impact (insert ACLU). I don't really want to get into why I am writing this but it has to do with a father who's son wants to join but the father has negative views on Scouting. I just wish there was a way to get the kids and parents to understand that scouting is not about being cool but more of a stepping stone to becoming good citizens and being able to have fun without being judged. Parents from my generation (Generation X) don't like conformity (hence the uniform) and others just don't care. I can't tell you how many X-friends from high school I have that live horrible lives (drugs, welfare, 2-3 kids from different dads, dads in jail, baby's daddy, you know Jerry Springer stuff). What is wrong with these people! It is just going to generate another genaration of degenerates. I'm 30 years old and I believe, if it was not for scouting I would not be as well off as I am now.

 

I know I have jumped around in this post a bunch but I was told that some of the new statistics are that 75% of the boys in Boy Scouts will come from single parent homes. What is happening to this country? Whats going to happen with leadership, with the fact that both parents have to work to make ends meat and don't have time to volunteer? I'll tell you one thing, we have allot of work ahead of us!

 

 

Wow....... did I say that out load?

[Gunny2862]

There a a lot of competing values and in our increasingly relativistic society, people of moral and ethical conviction are going to feel more and more of the stress you are feeling.

 

One of the things we can do is stay involved and work with those who will join us. Hoping that some thread of leadership is instilled along with character and hopefully some degree of moral and ethical decision making.

 

 

[GernBlansten]

BSA has chosen to align themselves with a segment of society that is viewed by a growing majority of Americans as fundamentalist, intolerant and judgemental. Despite the fact that most units I've had contact with do not share those values, the image is one that prevails.

[Gunny2862]

And in response to the comment that you are getting that "Boy Scouts is GAY" my son and the college students I am in contact with(that in their cultural view) assure me that the word GAY in this context has no homosexual contextual meaning but is a synonym for the words wrong and bad.

 

What I find interesting, is that the words' duality of meaning could easily imply that the homosexual context is also held in error against the mores of the people using it against you(or at least the still greater societal context) ... now isn't that weird.

 

I don't get any of the comments around here(at least not yet) and I've worn it on Campus, a few funny looks sometimes but no comments.

[Beavah]

Yah, Pack378. You're right, eh? Boy Scouting is not cool.

 

On the kid side of modern America, it's a dorky thing to do. That's an image problem. Don't know where it came from. The dress-designer uniform contributes a bit, but it's much bigger than that. It keeps a lot of kids away.

 

On the adult side of modern America, the old feeling of Boy Scouting being Patriotic and 'Adult Approved' has faded quite a bit. Other activities like sports get more real 'adult approval'. Our actions on social issues and abuse cases and selling camps have all contributed, as have generational changes in attitude.

 

So we've mostly lost da kid side of marketing, and we're losing the adult side in a lot of areas.

 

And as you say, Boy Scouting is almost exclusively a white middle class intact family program. The volunteer demands ace out a lot of single-parent types (and many dual-income families), and we've never had any serious penetration into other ethnic groups.

 

In the long run, we could well become a small niche program for Mormons and other rural conservatives. I actually suspect that we will, because I don't think there's enough creative energy left in da organization to overcome its inertia. Can yeh even name a single adult in the program who wasn't a scout as a youth? Hard to generate new ideas with that mix, eh? No point blamin' outsiders, almost all of it is our own marketing and organizational choices.

 

Yeh make a good point, though, Pack378. Youth numbers ultimately depends on the number of quality adults givin' their time... willing to put on that uniform. I don't know of any council anywhere that has a bunch of excess enthusiastic adults around lookin' to start new units.

 

Now, what do you do with all that? Nuthin'. For the kids and families you work with, what you do is important. It will be a significant part of their life growing up. What you do with those boys will change their world, and they in turn will affect the bigger world. We might not reach all kids and all families; but the kids we do reach need us, and we can do a great job for them.

 

The program may niche out in the next 20-50 years, or fade altogether. All good things must come to an end. Dat's a problem for Irving. But what you do for kids in the program will last, eh? Don't sweat the people you can't reach. Do a great job for the kids you can.

 

And as for Gen-X, I count you guys as at least a dozen steps better than da Baby Boomers. More rational, more generous, less self-absorbed. Yeh inherited some of their foolishness, eh, but you've rejected the worst of it. Don't be down on your generation. I think you're great kids. Just look at the mess the current crop of Baby Boomers in Congress is makin' of things. All about themselves, not about service. I'm countin' on you guys to bring us back to reality and honor.

 

Beavah

 

[mtm25653]

"On the kid side of modern America, it's a dorky thing to do"

 

My 2 sons, 16 and 18, embrace their dorky sides. They acknowledge that being in scouts, being good in school, knowing lots of things about lots of topics make them dorks/geeks/nerds. But they also play sports, one has been in a hardcore band, they have a "cool" side. They wear their scout uniforms in public and hold their heads high while doing it.

 

FYI, did you know there is a genre of music called "nerdcore"? There was a story on NPR in the spring, and my youngest pulled out his MP3 player to play me some.

[Gunny2862]

Beavah said,

"Can yeh even name a single adult in the program who wasn't a scout as a youth? "

 

I wasn't one.

[BrotherhoodWWW]

Beavah wrote:

"...snip..Can yeh even name a single adult in the program who wasn't a scout as a youth? Hard to generate new ideas with that mix, eh? No point blamin' outsiders, almost all of it is our own marketing and organizational choices.

 

Yeh make a good point, though, Pack378. Youth numbers ultimately depends on the number of quality adults givin' their time... willing to put on that uniform. I don't know of any council anywhere that has a bunch of excess enthusiastic adults around lookin' to start new units...."

 

Actually I can name several Adults in our unit that are not former youth members. In my small town (14,000 pop)and a neighboring town there has been at least one and posssibly two new troops in the past year plus at least one Pack. Yet your comments about rural conservative hit a bit close to home. I hope the future does not turn out as bleak as you anticipate. I get more good comments with the folks I talk to on a daily basis when I tell them of my plans to be gone next week to go to Scout Camp than I do negative ones. In fact I do not think I have had any negative comments.

 

I'm not sure Scouting needs an influx of new ideas to remain as a going concern and in some ways I think that there may have been too much of that already. Even though Scoutcrft skills may not be needed lifeskills as they were 100 years ago the ideals of good morals, leadership and service thaty Scouting teaches will always have value.

 

Scouting is also reacing out to females and some ethnic groups with some of the programs, Soccer and Scouting and Venturers. If more units would use advancement as just a method rather than primary focus retaining older scouts might IMHO be less of a challenge.

[evmori]

Can yeh even name a single adult in the program who wasn't a scout as a youth?

 

Hello!

[jr56]

In spite of what the liberal press tries to feed us every day, scouting is still largely respected in the US. I was reminded of this quite dramatically less than a month ago.

(See my post "Good Turn"). There will always be the vocal minority trying to sway everybody to their point of view, that scouting's values are out of touch and not "cool".

 

[Pack378]

the other day I was out of town, I was flipping through the radio stations and I ran across the Steve Harvey morning show. Steve made some points that just does not apply to the black community but also middle class white America. Steve said " After the Civil rights movements, the black man was exercising their new freedoms and completely forgot about the teaching the younger generation. The Hip-Hoppers are not teenagers any more , they are in their 30s, and nobody taught them the right way to treat their woman. In Hip-hop songs black men call their lady's b***** and H*** and that is a break down in the community. If a man does not treat their woman right we are going to have a community with single moms and a generation of kids that grow up in a vicious cycle without male role models."

[local1400]

Sticks and stones Pack378. I have worn my uniform to grocery stores, c-stores and stuff like that on meeting and outings travel. No one laughs at me or anything. But then again, I am built like a lineman.

[EagleInKY]

"Can yeh even name a single adult in the program who wasn't a scout as a youth? "

 

 

I'd say about 1/2 of our adults were not affiliated with scouts in any way. Maybe about 1/3 were, but did not make Eagle. About 10% of them are Eagles.

 

 

[msnowman]

I was never a Boy Scout (being female and all, that is kinda obvious).

Nephew wears his uniform to and from meetings and doesn't mind running into the store in it...though he is probably thrilled that he doesn't run in to any of his friends.

 

And for the record - Gay to Nephew and his peers (13 or so) means stupid and uncool.....for them it doesn't have anything to do w/ wrong or bad...just stupid and uncool....'cause of course everything must be cool (or Sick and Swanky in Nephew-speak).

[kraut-60]

Pack378, I sympathize with you on what our country seems to be embracing rather than rejecting...yes, it is NOT just minorities that have a problem with out of wedlock births and single mothers, some with children by several differant male fluid donors.(I REFUSE to call such people fathers!).

 

As far as being a uniformed Scouter, I have worn my uniform complete and correctly while traveling on trains as well as planes and while doing so received nothing but positive response from the people I met. One lady asked me if I was going to a Scout function, I told her that my son,daughter and myself were traveling in uniform to show our solidarity with our nations members of the armed forces...this lady told me she was the proud mother of 3 Eagle Scouts and that she thought what we were doing by wearing our uniforms was commendable.

 

One man at Chicago's O'Hare Intl. seeing my family and myself yelled "WAY TO GO SCOUTS!" along with a BIG smile and a thumbs up. This man was in the uniform of a baggage handler for an airline,..United I believe. Several soldiers and Marines came up to us and said they were former Scouts and thought it was "cool" to see us dressed as we were.

 

I have never received any negative feedback for being a Scouter...whether in of out of uniform. My son has lots of friends who arent in Scouts, but they think its cool for him, although several have indicated interest when he tells them what he gets to do as a Scout. My daughter is a Junior Girl Scout and has heard from one girl that Scouting was "gay" but this girl is from one of the unfortunate family situations...mom and dad split up and mom has a sucession of boyfriends staying with them...The American Dream...NOT!!

 

I know one who posts here seems to be a bit heavy on the doom and gloom while he pontificates in his backwoods vernacular, but I would not worry as he does seem to be aware of the right way that the Scouting Movement is going in...Me, I prefer to think my vision of a nation that realizes that the freebooting past it endured along with the selfish perspective coupled with liberal anything goes/embrace everyone BS may well be a thing of the past...This nation has come together before and righted itself...and it will again...and some Scouts and Scouters in uniform may help it along.

 

Wearing the uniform is an outward commitment that shows others where WE stand...I know I dont stand alone.