"Oh, a Boy Scout, Huh?"

CJ Watson wrote in part, asking:

In line with an issue, are you aware that "Boy Scout" is often used as an insult now? Do you have any idea why that might be?

The term "Boy Scout" has ALWAYS been a "slighted" term by those that FEEL it's such a term....personally, when people call ME a "Boy Scout" or refer to some action I took or said as a "boy scout" action, I just swell up in personal pride.

See, CJ...I AM a Boy Scout (and starting in Feburary of next year, we'll just call ourselves "Scouts"). Okay, the balding head kinda throws people off, and the larger tummy kinda throws people off. But I'm still a Boy Scout where it counts...in the heart.

But I'm also an adult, and I've learned through my own life that "words are just that: words. It's actions that matter." It took me some time to learn that, though...

Since the early 30s, the BSA's own publications warn Scouts that others outside the program won't appreciate what they are doing to better themselves.....Scouts even back then were considered "less than manly" by those not part of Scouting. The BSA met those challenges pretty well, but it was really the men (and now women) serving as Scoutmasters or Assistants that sit down with Scouts one-on-one and explain that "look, words are just words...actions speak much louder and with more impact than any words spoken or taunted at you." 

And today, we have a lot more examples of how words were used and what actions did to overcome those words.

I'm always reminded of Forest Gump's statement whenever someone called him "stupid...":

"Stupid is as stupid does," he responded more than once in that iconic movie.

When we work with Scouts, CJ, our emphasis should always be on making the term "Boy Scout" actually MEAN something. That's found in those words of the Scouting ideals....the Oath or Promise and the Laws...and our application of those ideals no matter what anyone else does to apply or not those ideals.

That's how you overcome those words. That's how women overcame words tossed at them; that's how Blacks and Latinos and Asians overcame racial and ethnic slurs designed to make them feel less than they are; and that's how many Gays and Lesbians overcome words designed to make fun of them when they were tossed their way like verbal grenades.

I'm not that old and in my recent experience to be a "Boy Scout" was to be a nerd and so on. I do have some ideas on why that is. Don't be surprised when less and less young men consider being a "Boy Scout" worth their time.

They will consider being a "Boy Scout" less worth their time when adults whom are involved in the program don't take the time to invite and involve those youth into the program. They will consider being a "Boy Scout" less worth their time when adults try to "create a scouting program" without the Scouting ideals, those few things which separate the Boy Scouts of America from just a "neighborhood kids' camping and outdoors club."

Don't be surprised when they find other outlets for something, something you probably think is "stupid".... oh well. They have to want to be there Settummanque. How do you think you'll draw them there? 

I will draw them there as I've drawn lots of other kids to Scouting: by my personal example. By my personal experiences as a Scout. By wearing the Scout uniform at appropriate times and doing those things associated with being a Boy Scout in and out of the uniform.

It'll be up to other adults who will associate with the youth we get into to determine what if they stay there or not...and remember....it's PROGRAM that keeps them there, not the idea of "having a good time and hopefully some day, we'll be able to go out and do some of those things illustrated in the Scout books!"

Boy Scout? I wear the insult well. Others should do the same, for it's not really an insult and more of a statement of being.

I AM a Scout!