| Scouting and America
By Hans Zeiger It was nine years ago this month that I sat at a picnic table under rain-soaked tarps at Camp Hahobas learning the basics of Boy Scouting. Brad and I were the new Scouts in Troop 174, and to us, getting to Eagle Scout seemed like a daunting task. While older Scouts went off to work on merit badges, Brad and I stayed back in our campsite with my grandpa, our Scoutmaster, learning the essentials of survival, environmental stewardship, First Aid, knots, plant identification, and Scout spirit. My grandpa has been involved in Scouting for nearly six decades of his life. Four of his sons, and seven grandsons have been involved in Troop 174. He spent a career as an elementary school principal, but he likes to say that he himself got more out of Scouting as a kid than he ever got out of school. Now that I’ve experienced Scouting, I have to agree. And a new study by Harris Interactive shows that Boy Scouts are more confident, more skilled at leadership, more interested in helping other people, and more likely to graduate from high school and college than their non-Scout peers. Of former Scouts surveyed, over 80 percent say that Scouting has taught them respect for life and property, care for the environment, honesty, and group cooperation. Two-thirds of former Scouts, and 83 percent of Scouts with at least five years in the program, say that they have been better leaders in real-life situations as a result of having been Scouts. Consider the Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” Scouting teaches self-government. Without self-government, there is no constitutional government. Our constitution rests on the character of the people, not the other way around. What Scouting does for America is so important that to lose it would jeopardize our liberty. So it is unfortunate that the Boy Scouts of America has been under sustained attack by Left-wing activists in recent years. The BSA is a private organization that, as the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in 2000, has the constitutionally protected right to maintain its own code of honor. Specifically, the BSA may exclude those who insist on practicing atheism and homosexual behavior, which clearly violate the Scout Oath and Law. More importantly, the Boy Scouts’ code of honor is the foundation of its freedom – and the freedom of every sort of private organization and church and interest group, Left and Right – to associate. Self-government is the surest safeguard for our civil liberties. And with Scouting stronger than ever, Americans can be optimistic about the rising generation. There are 4.1 million young Americans between the ages of 7 and 20 who are involved in Scouting programs. On July 25, more than 31,000 Boy Scouts and 7,000 adult volunteers will gather at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia for the Boy Scout Jamboree. It will be a diverse and inclusive gathering of young men of every race, ethnicity, economic background, and geographic region. Boy Scouts are the sons of Democrats and Republicans, Jews and Christians, rich and poor, inner city and rural, African-American and Hispanic. Scouting is a patchwork fellowship of America. Though it will be a diverse Jamboree, Scouts are united around a common
code of self-government – love for God, service to country and community,
and high personal character. And even if a few people can’t adhere to that
code, they can still respect the role that the Boy Scouts play in teaching
and preserving liberty for all Americans.
© 2005 Hans Zeiger |
Hans
Zeiger is a student at Hillsdale College, and
spokesman for the Scouting Legal Defense Fund. Hans
was recently named one of Current Magazine’s 15 emerging student leaders.
His website is