Last Call: Scout's Honor
Tucker, William
LAST CALL by William Tucker Scout's Honor A FEW SATURDAYS AGO, the Cub Scout pack I run in Brooklyn helped serve lunch at a homeless shelter. One of the first men in line was a bug-eyed...
...Running a Boy Scout program in Brooklyn sometimes feels like being trapped between two uncompromising cultures...
...Finally, she phrased a question...
...The boys lose both ways...
...Next month we're putting on a family talent show...
...In my neighborhood, we can't recruit in the schools because of parental opposition...
...She was white and—for reasons that require no explanation in my neighborhood—had in tow two young Hispanic boys...
...Albert Shanker calls the Boy Scouts "the best educational organization in America," and for once he's right...
...Single mothers all, they feel the pull of the gangs...
...RIGHT NOW THE BIG ISSUE IS HOMOSEXUALITY...
...Since it brings men and boys together in personal and often isolated circumstances, the Boy Scouts are understandably concerned about offering leadership positions to blatant, affirmed homosexuals who happen to walk in off the street...
...One of the first men in line was a bug-eyed character, relatively young, with Rastafarian hair...
...Merit badges are often as demanding as college courses...
...Sorry, you can't be morally superior all the time...
...To earn the biking badge, you must take two io-mile rides, two 15-mile rides, two 25-mile rides, and an all-day 50-mile tour...
...They swear they'll travel two bus fares to get their kids to the meetings every week...
...You're not going to make them do anything...patriotic, are you...
...Still, there's a constant, nagging sense of missed opportunity...
...When he saw the uniforms, his face suddenly lit up...
...It was a sublime moment, both gratifying and dangerous...
...Between them they rip good intentions to shreds...
...The Cub Scout helps the pack go...
...We may be sissies," one of my troop finally responded to constant taunting, "but we're the only sissies around who can save your life...
...The pack helps the Cub Scout grow...
...Raising his right hand, he solemnly recited: The Cub Scout follows Akela...
...I've seen those sullen, baleful looks in kids before, although rarely in anyone so young...
...We all gave him a big cheer...
...The woman bantered a bit, but plainly had something on her mind...
...The badge, the gold arrows, the oath, the sign, the secret handshake—all have the same attraction as the hand signals and "colors" that bind violent teenage gangs...
...We like to make friends with nature...
...The Cub Scout gives good will...
...The boys continued to regard me with sidelong glances...
...The Boy Scouts of America have considerable assets, and make an attractive target for lawsuits...
...She chatted a few more minutes, then left...
...And the ACLU is currently suing to ban sponsorship of scout troops by public institutions, and prevent scouts from having free access to parks and other public facilities...
...Except for the Baseball Hall of Fame, it's the only institution in America that hasn't been dumbed down...
...For music, you must sing in a chorus or play in a band for six months...
...DESPITE THE TURMOIL, the program still has its magnetic appeal...
...82 February 1997 • The American Spectator...
...Roberta Achtenberg practically got her job as assistant HUD secretary because of her efforts to have the Boy Scouts of San Francisco defunded...
...4-H...
...I never saw them again...
...Yet because of this policy, the Scouts are under frontal assault across the country...
...One night I met a woman who said her sons were interested in scouting...
...I shook hands, but that only made things worse...
...Yet in the junior-high schools, where many of our kids come from, the "something-or-other-about-queers" gets garbled into the idea that it's an organization for homosexuals...
...OUR TROOP COLLECTS FOOD for the homeless, carols at nursing homes, operates a Web site, camps out regularly, and holds the annual Pinewood Derby—always a favorite—in which kids carve wooden cars and race them down an elaborate homemade track...
...We're looking into 4-H...
...Yet the alternate message rang loud and clear: "You can be a Cub Scout and still end up like this...
...Often they show up once or twice, but somehow it never works out...
...One mother explained to me that her son wouldn't be joining us because the scouts are "too militaristic, too theocratic...
...Indeed, I get a dozen phone calls every year from black and Hispanic women all over Brooklyn desperately looking for adult leadership...
...On the other, you have a minority community that regards scouts as just another elitist institution...
...Is that the organization where they teach you to raise up little baby animals and then turn them over to be slaughtered...
...On one side, you have a liberal, progressive community that hates tradition and normality...
...They were both obviously uninterested...
...The national organization —which runs on very little overhead—is a fountain of ideas...
...You need 21 merit badges to earn Eagle Scout—plus organizing your own community-service project...
...I replied...
...Well, we might ask them to salute the flag, maybe say the Pledge of Allegiance," I said...
...A while ago, Scouting magazine carried an article called "I Am a Gang Leader...
...My cousin, a lawyer in his late thirties, says his Eagle still helps him on job applications...
Vol. 30 • February 1997 • No. 2
