Scout Limbaugh earns his ignorance merit badge. Again.
July 28, 2010 1:56 pm ET by Ben Dimiero
Continuing the utterly predictable conservative freak-out over the news that President Obama will be addressing the Boy Scouts' 100th anniversary jamboree via taped message rather than in person, Rush Limbaugh used the occasion to take a shot at Obama's past experience as a community organizer:
According to Limbaugh, Obama "stiff[ed]" the Boy Scouts, even though they visited the oval office two weeks ago, he's addressing the gathering via video, and several past presidents (including Limbaugh hero Ronald Reagan) did not attend jamborees. Rush purports to explain this imagined snub of the Scouts by saying it is "probably because there isn't a merit badge for community organizing."
As usual, he has no idea what he's talking about.
According to the Scouts' website, in order to become an Eagle Scout, you have to earn the "Citizenship in Community"badge:
A nation is a patchwork of communities that differ from each other and may be governed differently. But regardless of how local communities differ, they all have one point in common: In the United States, local government means self-government. Good citizens help to make decisions about their community through their elected local officials.
[...]
Discuss with your counselor what citizenship in the community means and what it takes to be a good citizen in your community. Discuss the rights, duties, and obligations of citizenship, and explain how you can demonstrate good citizenship in your community, Scouting unit, place of worship, or school.
And here are some of the books the Scouts recommend :
- Kielburger, Marc, and Craig Kielburger. Take Action! A Guide to Active Citizenship. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2002.
- Gary, Lawrence. How to Win a Local Election: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide. M. Evans, 1999.
- Lewis, Barbara A., Pamela Espeland, and Caryn Pernu. Kids' Guide to Social Action: How to Solve the Social Problems You Choose-- and Turn Creative Thinking Into Positive Action. Free Spirit Publishing Inc., 1998.
- Isler, Claudia. Volunteering to Help in Your Neighborhood. Scholastic Library Publishing, 2000.
While this is minor, it's a nice example of how conservative blowhards like Limbaugh can let their irrational hatred for everything associated with Obama lead them to look like complete fools.
I was in the Boy Scouts, and it wasn't anything I'd call a great experience, it wasn't even very positive as an experience, I remember it as mostly boring and simply something that filled time, it kept us from staring at television for a few hours a week, maybe kept us from wandering around the neighborhood where who knows what kind of fun or trouble we might get into... and so we met twice a week, usually in the basement of a Church, and it was mostly boredom not worth remembering (which is why I don't recall much of it), except for Jamboree.
We were supposed to go on Jamboree, and while I wasn't exactly sure what Jamboree was, it sounded cool, I thought we were going to go camping or hiking, overnight and for several days maybe a whole week, I don't remember it being fully described for me what Jamboree was, all I remember was that shortly before Jamboree was to happen, our Scout Leader had to cancel it, because his daughter was getting married and so I guess that was more important, why wouldn't it be... and then I remember the other kids, mostly older than me, saying that our Leader always does this, he always finds an excuse to not take us on Jamboree, this was about the third time he's had a daughter getting married... that's what I remember.
So it was all a bore, no camping or even hiking, nothing para-military (which would have really appealed to my young boy's heart, like maybe if we geared up and invaded and fought with some Young Communists Organization or something, even another Boy Scout Troop would've been fine), it was just a bore, I'd have spent that time better I'm sure, not in the basement of the Church but instead wandering around the neighborhood maybe finding adventure or romance or even joining a gang (a better one than BSA maybe), whatever, even hunting communists on my own, like a freelance little spy... anything would have been a better life's experience I think, than the boring stuff we did but mostly didn't do in the BSA.
I was in for less than a year, and quit before I got my Tenderfoot badge. It just wasn't my thing. I never was much for clubs. I joined the JayCees as an adult and hated it. (Maybe because they instantly voted me treasurer... the sucker's office that nobody wants)
I do remember hearing friends talk about Jamboree with much fondness. Apparently it's a summer camp for Boy Scouts. Lots of games, competitions and boyish pranks. It does sound like fun, but I didn't stay in long enough to go.
I think Boy Scouts has been idealized in our society because of its religious connections, but I could be wrong.
The leadership of each troop can really make or break the experience for the youth involved. My parents were almost always involved, in one way or another, in my scouting experience. I grew up with my parents having Cub Scout meetings in our living room. Even today, my dad (although he's a dittohead) is actively involved in the adult leadership training of current and future scout leaders in the area.
But I wasn't much of a club-joiner myself, and we moved around every couple of years, so I kind of fell out of it. I largly agree with Nerzog, though my own brief experience was closer to Epichuntarz's.
------------------------------------------------
Oh yeah... And I saw my first Porno Mag (Penthouse, as it were) on a Scouting trip. (Wilderness survival, IIRC) LOL
But I wasn't much of a club-joiner myself, and we moved around every couple of years, so I kind of fell out of it. I largly agree with Nerzog, though my own brief experience was closer to Epichuntarz's.
------------------------------------------------
Oh yeah... And I saw my first Porno Mag (Penthouse, as it were) on a Scouting trip. (Wilderness survival, IIRC) LOL
I had pretty much fun, but I never got any higher than First Class and I stopped scouting when I left D.C. I only went to one Jamboree; it was the week that Apollo 11 got to the moon and I've always regretted kinda missing that. I didn't even get a merit badge while I was there!
As you well mentioned, the "Citizenship in the Community" merit badge, which is required to become an Eagle Scout, directly requires you to become learned and involved in the process of community organizing.
In addition to required merit badges like that, each Eagle Scout candidate is required to plan, organize, and carry out a service project in the community. I planned and organized the cleaning and repairing of a local family history center. My brother planned and carried out the maintenance (cleaning, mowing, raking, etc.) of a local cemetery. Others do things like build shelves/cases for schools/senior centers, adopt a highway for clean up, fund-raise for charity, repaint historic buildings, etc.
There's a great deal of community organizing required of you as a Boy Scout. Rush has this completely backwards.