Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
You've probably heard it in the movies, maybe even had it said to you directly -- the oddly pejorative, "You are such a Boy Scout!"
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It's meant as a put-down. But could there be a better compliment?
And what a world it would be if everyone lived up to the Scouting paradigm.
Scouting is all about our highest ideals, after all -- and the famous Scout "law" sums up those values as well as anyone ever has: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
Imagine if politicians had to agree to all that at their swearing in!
And yet, even as we fret about the dangers that younger generations face -- gangs, drugs, violence, nihilism and more -- we've inexcusably allowed the notion that being a Boy Scout is somehow uncool.
Only if successful living is. Only if ethics, morality, honesty and goodness mean nothing.
From U.S. presidents to astronauts to military heroes to pillars of the business and civic worlds, former Scouts excel and succeed and inspire and lead -- and to a man, they credit their Scouting experience with having put them on the path to a good and rewarding life.
Scouting does all that, simply enough, by emphasizing service to others. Indeed, the national organization estimates Scouts provided the nation with $713 million worth of volunteer service in 2008. And many Scouts and Cubs across the U.S. have been pitching in to help the Haiti relief effort.
When looking inward, Scouts aim for physical fitness and broad knowledge of self-reliance and outdoor acumen. They were among the modern era's first environmentalists, believing strongly in the principle of leaving it better than you found it.
And, oh yes, Scouting is fun.
Augustan Reed Miller, whose family has been involved in 70 of American Scouting's 100 years, says it makes a man "more prepared to be a better citizen, a better husband, a better father. ... It helps you prepare for the rest of your life. You learn how to organize, set goals, work toward those goals and evaluate yourself. You learn how to talk to a large crowd."
What Britain's Robert Baden-Powell had put in motion just a few years earlier -- after writing a scouting manual for soldiers and finding that boys back home were reading it -- became the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910.
In honor of that 100th anniversary, we'll be writing a series of editorials in the next three months expounding on each one of the 12 timeless values enumerated in the Scout Law above -- starting with "trustworthy" next Sunday.
It's little thanks for an organization that has done so much for so long to shape so many lives. Few character-building organizations -- outside the church itself -- have been as successful in the past century as the Boy Scouts in instilling values and training future leaders.
And we've never needed that more.
So if someone complains, "You are such a Boy Scout," smile and say thanks.
You will have left a conversation better than you found it!
