Times Have Changed

Years ago while walking through an airport I purchased a copy of Rolling Stone magazine which featured a young, female singer I had never heard of before. As it turns out it the singer was Britney Rehab Spears and it was the same day I noticed that I was clearly an old man since I felt completely out of the loop.

Now at age 42 I recently had my second, "0kay I am clearly getting old now........." moment this past Friday night when I participated in my first Eagle Scout Board of Review (BOR) for the local Boy Scouts of America here in Minnesota. The BOR is the last stage in approval for a Boy Scout to receive Scouting's highest honor -- the Eagle Scout award. Statistics show that only about 3% of all Boy Scouts achieve the Eagle rank.

One element of the BOR is a discussion of the Boy Scout's "service project" required for the Eagle award. Our scout that evening had organized and managed a city park landscaping project. However, while reviewing his paperwork the thing that caught my attention was the "liability waiver form" that he had all volunteers for this project sign.

My own Eagle Scout service project was completed nearly 30 years ago but I can clearly remember that we did not have everyone sign liability waiver forms. My goodness today's world has changed - for the worse in this case since society is so lawsuit prone.

The one positive thing is that today's young men still strive to achieve the Eagle Scout award which has been earned by some great Americans who recently passed away -- former USA President Gerald Ford and explorer Steve Fossett.

They will be missed,

Todd

Happy Birthday

A belated Happy Birthday to the Boy Scouts of America (http://www.scouting.org/) which were incorporated on February 8, 1910 in Washington DC!! If you have a son, grandson, or nephew who is not in the Scouts please help them join a troop today since he will learn vital lessons that will serve him well throughout life.

Here are some of the key elements of the Scouts that everyone can benefit from knowing:

"Be Prepared" -- the scout motto would have served the Hurrican Katrina victims well versus holding up signs saying, "FEMA - come help us!"

"Do a good turn daily" -- the scout slogan. Just imagine how improved society would be if everyone tried to live this way? The small things count -- I always return shopping carts left in the parking lot to their proper storage locations thus preventing door dings!! No need to thank me for saving you the cost of repairs :-)

"Leave every camp site cleaner than what you found it" -- my troop leaders always mentioned this principle to us which today, since I am older and wiser, I apply to the environment. I do not need Al Gore telling me how to live since the scouts provided the fundamentals I need to live by versus the centrally-planned ideology that the Gore-bots advocate.

For more on the guiding principles of the scouts please visit this website --

http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/02-503a.html

The Boy Scouts of America have been attacked in recent years regarding the organization's religious and sexual orientation belief system which should be easily defended by the 5th Amendment right of "assembly" in the US Constitution. Regardless of these legal challenges the scouts are an important American entity that should be promoted.

Todd

Steve Fossett - tribute

Recently the family of explorer Steve Fossett requested that the search and recovery mission for him in Nevada be called off so that he could be declared legally dead. What a sad day for not only his family but for anyone that appreciated Mr. Fossett's love of adventure. There is one other group of people - the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) -- who mourn his loss. Mr. Fossett was the incoming president of the NESA so as a member I was personally inspired to see him playing this role because I was confident that he would take the NESA to an entirely higher level of success.

For better than anything I could write in tribute to Mr. Fossett is this memorial that the NESA has compiled on its website which can be viewed at:

http://www.scouting.org/media/fossett/tribute/index.html

To state the obvious here -- Mr. Fossett's death is a huge loss for his family and our nation. He is exactly the kind of person the current presidential candidates should have considered as a running mate or Cabinet member. At the NESA level we have big shoes to fill in terms of finding a new president but am confident the organization will reinforce its commitment to America's youth as a tribute to Mr. Fossett's memory.

On Eagle's wings,

Todd

Steve Fossett

World famous explorer - Steve Fossett - is the subject of a massive search and recovery mission in the State of Nevada, USA. Mr. Fossett went missing on September 3 during a planned three hour trip he was making in a single engine plane.

Based on the recent news reports I have reviewed the search status has been downgraded thus suggesting that officials feel Mr. Fossett will not be found alive. Not only is the loss of human life sad but the loss of Mr. Fossett would be especially sad because I loved his sense of adventure -- something that is often not appreciated in our sterile, modern world where peanut allergies and days off for students due to high temperatures dominate our schools.

However there is an even more personal reason that I am saddened to hear Mr. Fossett might not have survived his last adventure. One aspect of Mr. Fossett's life I have not seen mentioned in media reports is that is the incoming president of the National Eagle Scout Association (www.nesa.org) of which I am a member.

In his letter to NESA members (via the organization's magazine) Mr. Fossett noted that in his term as president of NESA he was going to focus on three projects:

• Database -- locating and databasing all Eagle Scout award winners
• Website -- improving NESA's current website
• Scholarships -- raising money to fund more Eagle Scout scholarships to ensure members can access college opportunities

Should we find that Mr. Fossett has indeed died in Nevada the world will not only lose a great explorer but the National Eagle Scouts Association will lose an exceptional leader that will be extremely difficult to replace.

God's speed Mr. Fossett,

Todd

Influential People

Okay I have said it before -- I am a sucker for the "USA Today Snapshots" charts/bar graphs that the USA Today newspaper publishes on a variety of topics -- so they caught me reading one today!!

Source of Polling Results: Harrisinteractive , Trends and Tudes

Question: "Kids ages 10 to 18 were asked who they would talk to if they thought they were depressed" . The results were --

A Friend -- 57% of respondents
Parents/Family -- 49%
Doctor -- 42%
Counselor/Therapist -- 42%
Another Adult -- 26%

Upon seeing these results several thoughts entered my mind including:

• Instead of using the generic "Another Adult" why didn't Harris add one or two more descriptive categories?
• Since this was report was published the day after Easter Sunday I really have to wonder why children did not cite "Pastor/Priest" as someone to talk to? Have America's youth become far more secular than their parents?
• Beyond religion that most glaring omission from my perspective is that of "Teacher/Coach". Since our public school system consumes nearly 50% of every state government budget and given that teachers spend more time with our nation's children during the week than their own parents do why is it that teachers are not considered to be a resource for children who face a crisis? However I do understand why "coaches" aren't such a resource -- it is because physical education/gym classes have been phased out in many schools across the country with only 33% of students enrolled in gym classes (as of 2005 - http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-08-23-phys-ed_x.htm).

Based on these results it would suggest that peer-to-peer counseling programs appear to be worth our support. Such programs don't need more government funding via our schools -- we just need to get our children involved in worthwhile programs like the Boy Scouts of America.

But the "war on Boy Scouts" is the subject for another posting.

Todd

Titles

Last week in church our "Pastor Ray" gave the sermon with his theme focused on the " negative titles" that we often give people such as when he was a young boy he was labeled as a "poor reader". I found the sermon interesting given its personal nature and Pastor Ray's personal accomplishment in overcoming - by realizing he was simply a "visual learner" not a poor reader -- this stigma that hurt him academically.

I didn't give his sermon much thought again until two nights ago when I was getting dressed at my gym when I heard a father tell his very young son -- "here let me do that since you suck at it.......... -- referring to tying his swimming suit waist string. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking!! No wonder we have underachieving students in the USA given parents like this father.

Personally, I think it is fair to say that there was a national feeling that the late, former President Gerald Ford was a "father figure" to most of the nation based on the funeral coverage I heard on television. I was reminded of President Ford's character tonight after reading an op-ed by Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media entitled, "Gerald Ford: A Boy Scout President" , in which Kincaid noted that Ford was the only US President to have attained the highest rank the Boy Scouts of America offers -- Eagle Scout.

Kincaid goes on to cite the example of a "negative title" given in Tom Clancy's book, A Clear and Present Danger, where a dishonest White House aide chides the book's CIA official, Jack Ryan's honesty (played by Harrison Ford), by saying, "You're such a Boy Scout", in a very contemptuous tone. As an Eagle Scout myself I am even prouder of President Ford's term in office now that I know he was our only Eagle Scout President. Pastor Ray's message is a good one -- a message that I need to work on daily so I don't attach negative titles to the people around me.

May your glass be half full,

Todd