Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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  
Download screen-resolution   
Download high-resolution





TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: donrumsfeld; honor; integrity; principles; scouting
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last
To: SandRat

Oh man... Keep this sick animal Gates away from the Scouts.
Next thing, he’ll want to sodomize the Boy Scouts the same way he supported sodomizing the US military.


21 posted on 03/04/2011 5:55:54 PM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

I flew off half cocked as usual.
I was blessed, (or cursed) to be a Scout Masters second son.
By the time my older brother had made Eagle I was still only a Cub in my best friends moms Den, moonlighting with my Dads Scouts.
By then Dad was burnt out and so I guess was I.


22 posted on 03/04/2011 5:56:31 PM PST by nkycincinnatikid
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: SandRat
Gates needs to pay a little closer attention to what he is doing as an adult.
He seems to have forgotten a few things.


23 posted on 03/04/2011 6:03:10 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nkycincinnatikid
I flew off half cocked as usual.

Understandable. It's easy to see red whenever the name "Holder" appears.

Or maybe that's just see a red when we see Holder.

24 posted on 03/04/2011 6:03:54 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Kathy in Alaska

Thanks Kathy,

From a Troop ScoutMaster

Bullfrog


25 posted on 03/04/2011 6:23:48 PM PST by Bullfrogg (American by birth, Irish by heritage, and hellraiser by choice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SandRat
Photobucket
26 posted on 03/04/2011 6:45:56 PM PST by Roccus (POLITICIAN...............a four letter word spelled with ten letters.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bullfrogg
From a Troop ScoutMasterT here is a question about the Boy Scouts that I have wondered about for some time. I wanted to join the Boy Scouts when I was a boy but I was afraid to ask anyone how you join. This was during FDR's first term and maybe things have changed. Do you have to be invited to join like being tapped to join a fraternity? Or do you fill out an application to join or be sponsored by a member? I bought a Boy Scout Manual at the corner drug store and learned to tie all the knots but the boys shunned me
27 posted on 03/04/2011 6:49:18 PM PST by tommix2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: SandRat

But he’s ok with fags running rampant through the Military openly? Gates is a joke and a bad one at that.


28 posted on 03/04/2011 7:02:18 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life is tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tommix2

Boys don’t need to be sponsored to join Boy Scouts. They need to find a local troop and be of the right age. There is no invitation involved. A registration form is required, and there area annual dues which can vary a bit from troop to troop. Our troop charges about $40 annually, of which part of the dues payment stays with the troop and the rest goes to our district council. Working from memory now, I believe the boys have to be 11 or to have finished the 5th grade. Many come from Cub Scouts, and cross over about this time of year in their 5th grade school year. Cub Scouting is not a requirement, however.


29 posted on 03/04/2011 7:06:17 PM PST by Think free or die
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood

He also thinks its ok for the fags to serve openly in the Military.These people disgust me.


30 posted on 03/04/2011 7:13:13 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life is tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Think free or die

Thank you. I’ve been wondering for some time. As I remember the local troop was far away from where I lived and the boys in the troop all lived in that area.


31 posted on 03/04/2011 7:32:38 PM PST by tommix2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: tommix2

Distance makes it more difficult to participate in any organized activity like this. Scouting tends to be a family-oriented activity, and there can be a lot of connections among the youth and their families - school, neighborhood, worship communities, sports, etc. I’ll really miss our Scouting family when our boys finish and move on to college. We have spent a lot of time with some of these youngsters and their families over the years, and it’s a part of our lives that I’ll always treasure.


32 posted on 03/04/2011 7:51:33 PM PST by Think free or die
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

Well ya know... I don’t want to name a particular person (not on FR, but elsewhere in my life), but it seems you can lead a horse to water and he still won’t drink. It’s possible for someone to go through the Scouting program even to Eagle Scouts and he can still act like a bastard afterwards.


33 posted on 03/04/2011 7:59:03 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: HANG THE EXPENSE

I don’t ever recall Don Rumsfeld commenting on the issue...


34 posted on 03/04/2011 8:10:18 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood

He was on with our local talkshow guy one morning last week.The Al Ganey show on am 550 in gainsville Georgia.It was a phone interview.His stock went in the shitter with me and I always admired him up till then.


35 posted on 03/04/2011 8:20:02 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life is tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: SandRat

I wouldn’t trust anything Gates says about the Boy Scouts after his derisive comments to Marine Corps flag officers on how their rejection of homosexuality was simply an opinion and he proceeds to mandate tolerance of homosexuality throughout the military.

If he likes boy scouts, it is a strong indicator he’s a pervert looking to groom his future sexual immoralities and he’s running to his lust.


36 posted on 03/04/2011 8:29:17 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: savagesusie
Yes, Homosexuals founded the boy scouting units in Germany.

I respectfully disagree with that broad statement. For the last eleven years, my main role in Scouting has been in International Scouting.

Although the United States has a single national Scouting organization (Boy Scouts of America), this is not the norm in most countries.

In most countries, there will be separate Scouting organizations based on religion, adherence to early (Baden Powell) Scouting principles, labor unions, and other groups. Germany has over 150 different Scouting organizations.

Scouting in Germany started in 1909 but was abolished in the 1930s in favor of the Hitler Youth. As was the case with Japan, the Boy Scouts of America helped start Scouting again in Germany after WWII.

It's simply not correct to say that "homosexuals founded the boy scouting units in Germany."

Do some, or most, Scouting organizations in Germany permit homosexual leaders? Yes. Most Scouting organizations throughout the world, other than the U.S. and the Middle East, permit homosexual leaders. Scouting in the U.S. differs from the international norm in other ways. For example, Scouting is coed throughout the world, with the exception of the U.S., primarily Moslem countries, and a few other places.

37 posted on 03/05/2011 10:13:22 AM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

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

The United Nations doesn't run the World Scout Organization.

38 posted on 03/05/2011 10:32:36 AM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

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

The United Nations doesn't run the World Scout Organization.

39 posted on 03/05/2011 10:32:36 AM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Scoutmaster

Direct quote from Pink Swastika—a well documented book that is trying to be hid by the homosexual fascists....the Hidden Hitler is another book that is being “hid” and defamed by the MSM. The Truth must NEVER be heard.

The extended-arm “Sieg Heil” salute, for example, was a ritual of the Wandervoegel (“Wandering Birds” or “Rovers”), a male youth society which became the German equivalent of the Boy Scouts. The Wandervoegel was started in the late 1800s by a group of homosexual teenagers. Its first adult leader, Karl Fischer, called himself “der Fuehrer” (“the Leader”) (Koch:25f). Hans Blueher, a homosexual Nazi philosopher and important early member of the Wandervoegel, incited a sensation in 1912 with publication of The German Wandervoegel Movement as an Erotic Phenomenon, which told how the movement had become one in which young boys could be introduced into the homosexual lifestyle (Rector:39f). The Wandervoegel and other youth organizations were later merged into the Hitler Youth (which itself became known among the populace as the “Homo Youth” because of rampant homosexuality. - Rector:52).


40 posted on 03/05/2011 12:06:42 PM PST by savagesusie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson