Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Boy Scouts in the News

Seems the Boy Scouts can catch a break these days. Last time I saw the BSA in the press was to report on widespread cases of heat exhaustion while waiting for President Bush to speak at the National Jamboree. Well, today the Seattle Times reports that a fellow Scouter at Camp Meriwether (it's in Oregon, and yes, I've been there) was walking with some other scouters, collapsed, and died.

He was 16!!!

So, first... why don't they every report about the good things that happen to Scouts, or because of Scouts? Like, "Cat rescued from tree by local scout" or "church repainted by scout troop." No, it's stuff like "Scout dies while hiking" or "Scout fails to rescue fellow hiker from falling down a crevasse." Seriously, scouts have their problems, but if I just read the paper I'd think they were an endangered species crippled by years of inbreeding. On reflection, that might be true, but certainly there are some good things to say as well.

Secondly... what happened to healthy scouting? Sixteen year old males are not supposed to fall down and die from walking.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think instead of healthy scouting, they should be promoting Extreme Scouting. Then the media would have things to report on.

"Scout earns Eagle by surviving unaided for 12 days inside live volcano."

"Class on deadly weapons helps BSA give back to community."

"Scouts learn self-defense, self-medication in combat training."

Oh yeah.