Trouble with Scouts being "Clean" (of word)

[Bob White]

At the first meeting a scout attends we discuss the meanings of the points of the Scout Law with them. We stress that clean in word and deed is expected of each person, both youth and adult, at all times. As with any part of the Scout Oath and Law, if the boy wants to be able to attend the events he must behave as a scout.

 

We also stress that if the adults can communicate without cursing so can the boys. that being said...once upon a time, I offered to make dessert for the troop. I wanted to demonstrate a method of stacking dutch ovens to cook. About 40 minutes into the cooking time, I unstacked the ovens to look inside and see if the desserts were done. I decided they needed about 10 more minutes so I started to restack them. However, I failed to put my hot glove back on. When I grabbed the first oven by it's very hot bail and lifted it off the ground. The entire camp heard the sizzle of the hot wire as it burned a line across my fingers. Next they heard a string of invectives, many of which I did not even know I knew, spill from my mouth.

 

A cheer of "all right Mr. White" arose from the boys as they let fly with every curse word they knew for about 10 seconds. The SPL raised his hand in the scout sign and everyone immediately went silent. The SPL looked at me and said "Well, I think we are all even." Everyone laughed as I headed for the cold water. No one ever cursed, or mentioned the incident again, as far as I know.

 

Bob White

 

 

[Fuzzy Bear]

Bob White,

Thanks for sharing a very entertaining story.

 

and

 

Mark,

Thanks for yours.

 

It is nice to hear these experiences retold.

 

Fuzzy B.

 

 

[Eamonn]

While I have been around a lot of foul mouthed people and have been known to let loose maybe more then I should. I am very careful not to use cuss words or profanity near young people or those who might take offence.

For a while OJ was taking more then a keen interest in the CDs in my car. One was John Lennon and "Working Class Hero", which does have the "F" word and the other was Les Miserables sound track which does have the "B" word. We talked about the use of profanity and how there are times when it is used to make a point. Just as in other art forms certain things that might be viewed as unacceptable are ok when used in that context.Still these words are not acceptable in general use and these words must be looked at as being dirty words which are vulgar and obscene. This of course led to us talking about the profanity used in some of the Rap and Hip-hop music that he likes. Not being a great lover of Rap music or Hip-hop, it would be too easy for me to just dismiss it all as being trash. However I asked him to play some of it for me,especially the tracks with the swear words. Some of this stuff is really strong and shocking. I sure as heck would not want to play it in public. But looking at it as an art form this is the language that these artists use it is in common use where they come from so why would they not use it? More shocking then the language is the way that they view women, sex and drug use. Again this is the way that these guys see the world, so why would they not write about it in the way that it is to them?

In the end OJ and I agreed that if this language was used as part of what was trying to be put across that it was ok, if it was only being used for shock value it wasn't.

I still am not a great lover of this kind of music, still I am trying hard to understand it.

The strange thing is that OJ never uses foul language.

Eamonn