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Gates: Scouting Instills Principles, Integrity, Honor
American Forces Press Service ^ | John D. Banusiewicz

Posted on 03/04/2011 5:03:09 PM PST by SandRat

DALLAS, March 4, 2011 – Recalling his own experience as an Eagle Scout, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last night praised scouting for instilling principles, integrity and honor in tomorrow’s leaders.

Click photo for screen-resolution image
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates thanks former President George W. Bush after he is introduced during the Circle Ten Council Friends of Scouting dinner in Dallas, March 3, 2011. Gates, a former Eagle Scout, gave a keynote speech. DOD photo by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison
  

(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
Gates was the keynote speaker at a Circle Ten Council Friends of Scouting dinner here.

The secretary told the audience of 1,500 that he could fit everything he owned in the back seat of his car when he went to Washington, D.C., at age 22 to work for the CIA. At that time, he said, earning his Eagle Scout badge was the only thing he had done that made him believe he could make a difference.

“It was the only thing I had done that distinguished me from so many other high school kids,” he said. “It was the first thing I had done that told me I might be a little different because I worked a little harder, was a little more determined, a little more goal-oriented, more persistent than others. Earning my Eagle gave me the self-confidence to believe, for the first time in my life, that I could achieve whatever I set my mind to.”

Much has changed, and not all of it for the better -- especially for young people -- in the 50 years since he was a Boy Scout, Gates said.

“One thing, however, that has remained the same over the years is the positive experience of scouting on boys and young men,” he added, “and the ability of so many of them to surprise us and inspire us with their determination, their character, their skills, and their moral and physical courage.”

Good homes and good parents produce good boys, but scouting tempers the steel, the secretary said.

“At a time when many American young people are turning into couch potatoes and, too often, much worse,” Gates told the audience, “scouting continues to challenge boys and young men, preparing them for leadership.”

One way scouting creates leaders, the secretary said, is by presenting new challenges that build confidence, self-reliance and the spirit of adventure. Another benefit, he added, is that Boy Scouts learn the importance of service to others.

“The scouting movement shows dramatically that service -- public service -- still beckons the best among us to do battle with complacency, neglect, ignorance and the emptiness of the spirit that are the common enemies of social peace and justice,” Gates said. “Adults like you who support scouting are generously investing in our collective future –- in [columnist] Walter Lippman’s words, you are ‘planting the trees we may never get to sit under.’”

Caring beyond one’s self, the secretary added, is fundamental not only to scouting, but also to democracy and to civilization itself.

Scouting also prepares boys and young men to live lives based on unchanging values such as trustworthiness, loyalty, honesty, kindness, and the respect and dignity every person deserves, he said.

“We in scouting believe that personal virtues -- self-reliance, self-control, honor, integrity and morality –- are absolute and timeless,” Gates said. “There are in too many places too few people with scouting values -- people who say, ‘On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty,’ and mean it.”

The secretary noted that scouting allows adults who are leaders to teach boys to be leaders.

“In challenging boys to learn skills, to master challenges, to strive to live up to high principles and moral values, to find the greater beauty in a life of cheerful service, to build strong character, scouting tempers them into strong leaders for tomorrow,” Gates said.

Former President George W. Bush introduced Gates to the audience. Gates’ service as defense secretary dates back to December 2006, during Bush’s administration.

Biographies:
Robert M. Gates

Related Sites:
Circle Ten Council, Boy Scouts of America


Click photo for screen-resolution image Former President George W. Bush introduces Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates during the Circle Ten Council Friends of Scouting dinner in Dallas, March 3, 2011. DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison  
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: donrumsfeld; honor; integrity; principles; scouting
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1 posted on 03/04/2011 5:03:14 PM PST by SandRat
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To: RonF; AppauledAtAppeasementConservat; Looking for Diogenes; wisconsinconservative; AFPhys; ...

2 posted on 03/04/2011 5:04:44 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

Is it too late for Gates to get his colleague Eric Holder enrolled in the Boy Scouts?


3 posted on 03/04/2011 5:04:49 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: SandRat

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to not have been involved in Boy Scouts.


4 posted on 03/04/2011 5:09:39 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

As a youth yes. As an adult leader no, but I doubt he could pass the adult leader traing requirements.


5 posted on 03/04/2011 5:10:11 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
As a youth yes. As an adult leader no, but I doubt he could pass the adult leader training requirements.
6 posted on 03/04/2011 5:10:49 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

The feminists, United Way and the libs want to destroy that !


7 posted on 03/04/2011 5:11:20 PM PST by CORedneck
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To: SandRat

As long as they aren’t being run by the UN’s World Scouting Organization!!


8 posted on 03/04/2011 5:13:05 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: SandRat

9 posted on 03/04/2011 5:13:30 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post.)
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To: SandRat
Note: Graphic from last year...

Boy Scouts


10 posted on 03/04/2011 5:14:54 PM PST by FrankR (The Evil Are Powerless If The Good Are Unafraid! - R. Reagan)
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To: SandRat

Voila!
You nailed it!
The problem with Mr Gates.
He is still a boy scout loyal ,obedient, brave, clean ,reverent to Bush, Obama, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Whoever.
He never became a Man.


11 posted on 03/04/2011 5:16:48 PM PST by nkycincinnatikid
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To: SandRat

SandRat, love your posts.

I’d feel more buddy-buddy with Gates had he enlisted, earned the rank of PFC and at least run a patrol in enemy territory.

Semper Fi, SandRat.


12 posted on 03/04/2011 5:19:40 PM PST by sergeantdave (The democrat party is a seditious organization and must be outlawed)
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To: sergeantdave

Yes Sergeant!


13 posted on 03/04/2011 5:22:30 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: nkycincinnatikid; SandRat

I was just thinking that exposure to that Boy Scout honor and integrity might help Mr. Holder do a better job running the Justice Department.


14 posted on 03/04/2011 5:24:41 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
It would be an anathema to his ego flowing in one ear and out the other without meeting any resistance.
15 posted on 03/04/2011 5:29:55 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

And the Scouts are still “don’t ask, don’t tell”. We should have found some other Eagle Scout to be Secretary of Defense, this one is clearly devolving.


16 posted on 03/04/2011 5:31:08 PM PST by throwback ( The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid)
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To: CORedneck

Ya, I’m surprised to see anyone in authority in our gov’t praise scouting. Because of their stand on homoseuxal leaders, the Boy Scouts have been condemned by the left.


17 posted on 03/04/2011 5:38:31 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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18 posted on 03/04/2011 5:38:48 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat
EAGLE SCOUT...


19 posted on 03/04/2011 5:44:43 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???)
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To: GeronL

Yes, Homosexuals founded the boy scouting units in Germany. It is why homosexuality became the “national vice” and, of course, united the SA Brownshirts which also embraced Hitler.

It is so great that the real men have not allowed homosexuals to infiltrate the Boy Scouts in America. I know a few have snuck in to sodomize the boys but for the most part their leaders have been very vigilant, indeed, and are fighting the culture that wants to normalize pederasty again like in ancient pagan cultures.

It is the only group I donate to.


20 posted on 03/04/2011 5:53:38 PM PST by savagesusie
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