Point taken, but I have read the book. For the sake of full disclosure, conservatives need to know what the written record is so they can "Be Prepared." I take no joy in this discourse.
... Whatever may have been the truth, he sure as heck built a lot of good men and developed character in generations of men that made the West tower above the rest of the world.
Yes, he did. His earlier biographer, Bill Hillcourt, painted what is generally considered the "officially BSA sanctioned" biography. "Green Bar" Bill was/is a legend in BSA. On a related note ...
1/28/2013 - Terry Howerton, founder (1994) and owner of the heavily used web-site, http://www.Scouter.com, posted a column for Forbes magazine at Forbe’s website entitled, “The Business of Scouting and a Crisis of Our Own Making.” Howerton is an Eagle Scout with 20 years volunteer service in scouting as an adult. He wrote …
“… When I was 19 years old, I met — then lived with, and traveled the world assisting — 1 of the great mentors of my life. He was 91 years old, and William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt was renowned as 1 of the founding fathers of the worldwide movement of Scouting. … There’s no doubt in my mind how loudly William Hillcourt would have screamed until this (exclusive membership) policy had been changed … in my opinion, and 1 shared by millions of parents with kids who could benefit from Scouting, the corporation that administers Scouting in America lost its moral compass a long time ago. …”
>>I take no joy in this discourse.
“The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.”
—Albert Einstein
Nobody said being eternally vigilant was gonna be fun.
I remember Bill Hillcourt’s page in ‘Boy’s Life’ when I was a kid. I believe I was in the last phase of the ‘old’ Scouting method. In the 1970’s, they began to push the idea that they had to be relevant. Historic methods were tossed and fashionable methods took over. A few years later, women began to take over troops and roles in the system. The logic always was: ‘Well, if men won’t do the job women will’. Perhaps it is just another failed legacy of the Boomer generation or maybe Scouting was irrelevant to the culture. I don’t know. I do know that what it taught me probably served to keep me somewhat sane in my growing up years.
Sad, sad, sad. Commensurate with the death of a nation.