First, let me mention something I find truly uplifting; namely, my recent service as a member of the Eagle Scout Board of Review for the Northern Star District of the Bay Area Council of the BSA.  For all its criticisms and perceived shortcomings, one thing at which BSA is outstanding is helping boys within the age range of about 14-18 to acquire real experience in the art of leadership.  Notwithstanding that a boy can in theory (and sometimes in practice) attain the rank of Eagle by age 13 or 14, those young men who wait until they are at or near 18 years of age to do so have (without exception in my still limited experience) come to the Eagle board with impressive leadership credentials.  Perhaps this attribute, then, is a way to discern the "men" from the "boys", leastwise in scouting.

Let me add something else about which I'm a bit less sanguine.  This past weekend I attended, as a Committee Chairperson, something called "Crew Bash '08", which was a Venture Crew weekend held at Camp Karankawa (the Boy Scout camp of the Bay Area Council located near West Columbia, Texas, in far southwest Brazoria County).  On Friday night, the event was to include a live band, which would play essentially out in the open in the middle of roughly one square mile of bottomland along the San Bernard River.  I mention all this to preface the fact that apparently one of the neighbors felt the music was just "too darned loud" (to quote a tongue-in-cheek Huey Lewis from the movie "Back to the Future").  Yes, property owners have a right to go to bed with the chickens and fall asleep to the sound of coyotes (and not rock bands), but should not well-supervised adolescents also have the right to a bit of good, clean fun?  The sheriff's deputy shut down the proceedings quickly and did not give the band any opportunity to dial down the volume enough so as not to disturb the neighbors.   Is this fair, and does this make kids want to spend their weekends in scouting-related activities?  Perhaps if the music had been covers of Toby Keith songs rather than of 80's progressive rock anthems the show might have gone on?

Greetings. 

I apologize that it has taken me some days to get back to the writing of this blog; I just felt I needed to cool down further prior to making another entry. 

Public and community service should, I think, be regarded by those who carry it out as a true calling.  It is rare indeed that the majority of the public ever acknowledges these individuals at all, save for when something goes wrong.  The true test of the willingness of an individual to undertake actions in the public good, then, occurs in those instances when he or she knows with certainty that the act will go un-noticed and unrewarded.  To perform a task for which no thanks are forthcoming, but without which much value to society will otherwise not be gained, connotes (in my view at least) true nobility of purpose. 

The ability to work behind the scenes to enable that which is good in the world is therefore a gift, because to live honorably and with integrity is, or at least ought to be, its own reward.  Anyway, that's how I see it.