Boy Scout Handbook

Mitchellville ,Iowa.org ^ | Junk Yard Dog Czar

[jmcenanly]

From the Boy Scout Handbook, Copyright 1965, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA: New Brunswick New Jersey No. 3227 page.438.

When you reach the age of voting citizenship you will know the true meaning of democracy and of liberty and will be able to carry out your duties to your country--obeying its laws, taking your place in the community.

Be a thinking citizen--not a thoughtless one.

Keep yourself informed on the happenings of the day--in your own community,your country, and throughout the world.

Learn how your country, your own State, your city, town, or village are governed and find out how you fit into that government. Discover where that government is strong and where it is weak. Do your part as a citizen in the big task of upholding its strength and overcoming its weaknesses.

But be prepared as well to do your part in the smaller tasks--in such everyday things as obeying traffic regulations, living up to game laws when you go hunting or fishing, serving on jury duty when called, and many other things.

Find out about our political parties and what they stand for--all of them, not just one. Study all sides of a question that concerns the welfare of your community, your State, your country. Then take your stand and vote as your conscience bids you. Vote those people into public office you fell best fitted to do what you think is right.

That's the way to make democracy work.

But don't stop there.

Remember that America is not a gift that is freely given us. Each of us must deserve it. We must work for America, live for it, and if the call should come, die for it!

"A chain is as strong as its weakest link."

A nation is as strong as each of its citizens. America is as strong as YOU are!

[jmcenanly]

This sounds as fresh as though it had been written this morning, yet the Scouts who read it are now approaching their 60's.

[mommya]

Nice. Is this still in the current handbook?

I guess I need to get over to the scout shop - my boy’s first meeting is Monday - he got his Cub Scout Arrow of Light and crossed over about 2 weeks ago.

[Maine Mariner]

I still have the handbook that was published just before this one.

[Maine Mariner]

Congratulations to your son crossing over. Mine crossed over 3 years ago. He is going to the National Jamboree at Fort AP Hill at the end of July.

[Onelifetogive]

I guess I need to get over to the scout shop - my boy’s first meeting is Monday - he got his Cub Scout Arrow of Light and crossed over about 2 weeks ago.

Good luck to him. I got my Eagle card in 1982. I still have it in my wallet.

[Clint N. Suhks]

When you reach the age of voting citizenship

You are no longer a Boy Scout. :o(

Sad the irony. But you are Prepared!

[Domandred]

Is this still in the current handbook?

Gimme a few I'll go look what last years said.

[newheart]

Bfl

[Domandred]

Nope, 1984 version and 2009 version are quite a bit different than the 1965 version. Definitely doesn't say "if the call should come, die for it!".

2009 version talks about the military protecting our borders. Also says something like "ignorance, apathy, and prejudice are enemies of the country. Defeat those by taking advantage of educational opportunities."

I did find something interesting in the 1984 version though that I forgot about:

The American's Creed

I believe in
the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the poeple, for the people;
whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic;
a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States;
a perfect Union, one and inseperable;
established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrified their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country
to love it;
to support its Constitution;
to obey its laws;
to repect its flag;
and to defend it against all enemies. (foreign and domestic)

Okay I added the last foreign and domestic in parenthesis.

I didn't see that in the 2009 version.

[Yosemitest]

Didn't our Heavenly Father, through our Savior tell us...

" thou mayest not set a stranger over thee,
which is not thy brother."

How well we deserve this curse (~so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things~) God has given us, through the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN CHIEF, the FASCIST Obama.

This too shall pass...(probably is coming to pass ... right now)

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,
and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,
and ye take from him burdens of wheat:
ye have built houses of hewn stone,
but ye shall not dwell in them;
ye have planted pleasant vineyards,
but ye shall not drink wine of them.
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins:
they afflict the just,
they take a bribe,
and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Let us be ... a "thorn in their side".

"But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you;
then it shall come to pass,
that those which ye let remain of them
shall be pricks in your eyes,
and thorns in your sides,
and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Moreover
it shall come to pass,
that I shall do unto you,
as I thought to do unto them."

[mommya]

Interesting. Thank You.

The older stuff is better, a much more powerful message.

I like the Creed.

I think I will print it all out and give it to the Scout Master.

[boop]

It implores the scouts to study all political parties and decide which one is best. In 1965 there were DEMOCRATS that make todays conservatives look like Sean Penn.

[higgmeister]

Yours was the fifties book.

This is the Sixties edition.

[Jet Jaguar]

Scouting ping.

[SandRat]

Try already in their 60’s in my case and still in Scouting teaching Scouting to another generation.

[SandRat]

[Theo]

I take it that “crossed over” doesn’t mean that your son had died. Is that Boy Scout jargon for something?

[BulletBobCo]

I take it that “crossed over” doesn’t mean that your son had died. Is that Boy Scout jargon for something?

Crossing over is a term used for when a cub scout turns into a boy scout.

[Theo]

Thank you for the explanation. I was both a cub scout and a boy scout, and had never heard that term. Sounds kind of morbid.

[Myrddin]

That printing date is right in line with when I joined the Scouts. It was a Wednesday evening meeting. A hike on the C&O Canal was scheduled for Saturday, but you had to be at least a Tenderfoot to go. Thursday was Memorial Day. I studied on Wednesday night and went to the scoutmaster's house on Thursday afternoon. Bingo! Tenderfoot overnight. It was 1967. In July, I went to Scout camp at the Goshen Scout camps. July 18th I earned my 2nd class badge. By the end of year, I had made First Class and had all the merit badges completed for Star.

It was April 12th 1972 when the board of review approved me as an Eagle Scout. The next most significant event was graduation from UCSD in June 1976. Frankly, the life lessons learned in Scouts have been more practically useful than even the college degree.