[UA] UA this one!

[Chad Underkoffler]

> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 11:26:29 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Royal Minister of Stuff <yokeltania at yahoo.com>
>
> > Boy Scouts Destroy Dinosaur Tracks
> 
>
> THE BAD PART
> I think the boy scouts themselves are a symbol of the
> corruption or perversion of human relationships with
> nature and, perhaps, even the society around them.

I'm not 100% sure of that. I see the point, though. I think the
ideals are offered, then teenage boys willfully misinterpret
them. That's the way it seemed to me.

> This is not just because what little I remember of my
> entire two years of scout experience consisted of
> watching Scott Flores get slam-dunked by old,
> hyper-aryan eagle scouts while I hid behind the
> drunken scout master's divan.

Luckily, my troop wasn't that bad, but that could be since I was
one of the ringleaders. There were only two kids I remember...
well, not giving a hard time, per se, more like calling them on
their bullshit. The kind of guy who was supposed to be cooking
over the fire and would walk away from the pot to play with his
handheld videogame and let the food-- the food for an entire
patrol, and all we had for dinner-- burn to a crisp. (Not to
mention what it did to the pot itself when it fell into the
coals and heated for 45 minutes.) The kind of guy who would
"borrow" your TP and not tell you. We gave them a hard time, but
there was no hazing qua hazing.

> I think movies like "Tea and Sympathy" point out an
> inherently problematic element in scouting: the
> tendancy to emphasize negative or macho-stupid group
> interaction.

I'd agree with that. However, good leadership-- good
rolemodels--  by other/older Scouts and Scoutmasters/Ass't
Scoutmasters really helped defray that. When the adults were
involved, gave a shit, and paying attention, Scouting was a fine
thing. When left to our own pre-teen and teenage devices,
Scouting walked a knife-edge of horror.

> THE GOOD PART
> So scouting groups can also be used to show the human
> need for formal groups.  Characters in the scouts can
> be molding youth or act as a kind of initiation
> ceremony for greater secrets.  They can represent the
> positive side of indoctrination: a process that makes
> it easier to get along in society.

I will say that my initiation into the Order of the Arrow was an
important experience for me, both in a personal and a mystical
sense: the ritualistic nature of the ceremony much like that of
a Greco-Roman mystery cult paraphrased with Native American drag
and the ideals behinmd OA really effected me. Not to mention the
meteor shower that happened during the ceremony, out in the open
field under the stars.

http://www.oa-bsa.org/misc/basics/
http://www.bsa.scouting.org/factsheets/02-503a.html

Funny; I look back at these sites and can see how I have tried
to live my life in accordance with the Scout Oath and Scout Law
(the actual things, not the ephemera around them, e.g., these
anti- policies). And I know a handful of people who have done
the same. I know that's not cool or hip, but it's my life, and I
choose to live it with hope and with honor. I don't care if
other think I'm deluded, or a fool, or a liar.


Love,

Chad
Eagle Scout, Brotherhood Arrowman


=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"You left out a Hoongadoonga! The most important one, too!"
  - Capt. Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Groucho Marx)

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