Clear Rules

Blueprint for Life

I was a Boy Scout; in fact, Scouting played a huge part in my development.  Scouting gave me a blueprint for living.  The “Law” demanded that I was:  Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.  I strived, “On My Honor”, to “Do my Best to do my Duty to God and My Country”.  I was to “Obey the Scout Law” (the twelve above); “…Help other people at all times”, and to “Keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

Clear cut and simple rules for living at eleven years old.  

Mentally Awake

As I grew older the “Black Letter Law” of Boy Scouts gained nuance.  Isn’t that the definition of “Mentally awake”?  My first crisis:  did my loss of faith in my organized religion mean I was no longer doing my “…duty to God”?  Could I be “reverent” without attending Sunday services?  I had to look hard at my own view of religion. I determined that my Scout foundations allowed me to “Do My Best” to serve humanity as a religious experience.  Besides, Scouting put me hiking through an Ohio pine forest in the cool fall breeze, camping on the shore of a remote Canadian lake at sunset, and sleeping under the stars at 9,000 feet in New Mexico. How could I not feel reverence.

I was a child of the Vietnam Era. I learned that my “Duty to Country”, Loyalty and Obedience did not require me to blindly follow the dictates of Government.  In fact, my “Duty” might require me to protest against those dictates, and strive to make my Government do right instead of wrong.  I could be Loyal to the United States, without being blind to our faults. 

Morally “straight” (in an era before the defined “straight and gay”) seemed clear cut.  Do what was right, both legally and morally.  But in that time, right after the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement, I found that you could be morally “straight” while still violating the law.  Scouting’s code didn’t tell me which was more important, but making our Nation morally “straight” seemed the higher calling. 

My Duty

The Scout Law and Oath might have required interpretation, but it was still a great place to begin.  In my life, I continue to try to “help other people at all times”.  “Other” didn’t just mean people that agreed with me, or those that shared my “moral compass”.  Other is just that, others.  And in helping, I try to defend their right to determine who they are, and how they live.  Defend is an important term:  the Scout Foundations empowered me with direction and purpose.  

It was “My Duty” to defend those who are not as empowered, or felt that they were left out of the American experience.  Scouting does not brook bullying of those that are different, and neither should we as a Nation.  My definition of being “physically strong” and “morally straight” required me to defend those that are less able to defend themselves.

When I think about our world in the 2020’s, I struggle. It’s now fifty-six years since I first stood in a green uniform, held up my right hand in salute and took the Scout Oath.  We are a Nation where many don’t “help other people at all times”, and are trying to force their own version of “morally straight” on our entire population. Could there be anything more immoral?   

Be a Scout

Nothing in the Scout Oath or Law says anything about gaining wealth and power. But that seems to be the “law” that many of our leaders are following.  Instead of empowering the less fortunate, bringing the benefits of our national wealth to help all (help other people at all times), some are just helping themselves.  There’s nothing in the Scout Foundations that encourage selfishness, but there’s so much selfishness in our Nation today. 

There is an old insult – “Stop being a Boy Scout”.  Stop standing up for what’s right.  Stop looking out for others, for “doing a good deed daily” (the Scout slogan).  Don’t use your physical and mental strength; your moral courage, for the good.   For some in our post-covid, post-truth era, being a “Boy Scout” is just not cool.  

Insult me all you want.  But the Foundations of Scouting still apply today, fifty-three years since a kid with black curly hair and glasses became an Eagle Scout.  In fact, Scouting is “woke”, and so am I.