Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: September 25, 2008 – # 8839c – Scouting – A Pathway to Citizenship (822)

Two years ago I wrote a column titled, “Scouting – A Pathway to Citizenship.”  It was well received in the scouting community and was circulated throughout the region.  I received a thank you e-mail from Rodrigo Cano chairman of the scout’s third annual Merit Badge University hosted by Kennesaw State University.

Last July I received an e-mail from Mr. Cano asking if I would consider writing another column on scouting and mentioning that this year’s fifth Merit Badge University will be on October 25 and will again be hosted on the Kennesaw State University Campus. There will be 65 merit badge classes offered with at least one for Girl Scouts on being Business Wise. Today, September 25, is the last date to register for this event that will register 900 plus boys and girls. To register on line go to www.meritbadge.info.

Included among the professionals who will teach these merit badge classes will be Congressman Tom Price, State Senator Chip Rogers, and Cherokee’s own Superior Court Judge Frank Mills. With such qualified teachers is it any wonder that I believe scouting truly is “A Pathway to True Citizenship.”

            My association with this Merit Badge University began when Judge Mills asked me to assist him in teaching his annual Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge at the third annual Merit Badge University in 2005. I was invited back in 2006 but health issues forced me to by pass the 2007 Merit Badge University clinic and I will miss this year’s clinic as well due to health issues.

            But health issues don’t keep me from following ‘my scouts’ in Troop 637. And with two of our local scout leaders on the district council I stay in touch with the county’s scouting program as well.

            Troop 637 has two events scheduled that are important to me. Both events will be celebrated next Wednesday, October 1 at 7 p.m. The first one, an Eagle Court, is to honor Daniel Vicznesky son of Scott and Starr Vicznesky, of Woodstock who will receive his Eagle Badge and be inducted into the troops growing Eagle Nest during the ceremony. The second event, ironically, will honor Daniel’s father Scott. Scott will receive scouting prestigious “Medal of Honor with Crossing Palms” for his heroic rescue of his neighbor from his neighbor’s burning home – just across the street from where Scott’s family lives in southwest Cherokee County. Troop 637 is sponsored by the Allatoona Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and this event will be held in the church’s newly completed chapel at 2205 Bascomb Carmel Road.

            If this year’s clinic is a repeat of the 2006 clinic the scouts will leave well fed, with a stronger appreciation for America and for its foundational documents - the Declaration of Independence and Constitution where Congressman Price explained briefly the workings of Congress in Washington DC. Each boy was given a Pocket Constitution, containing the Declaration of Independence, along with a small rock with the words “My Rock” printed on it as a symbol connecting their freedoms to the founding documents of America’s freedoms. Congressman Price then read to the boys the Declaration’s preamble, its first paragraph, and then he reread those eight words, “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” that many refer to as the “Foundational Rock of America’s Freedoms,” and then, while pointing heavenward, said to the boys there, there is the source of your freedom – God. 

            I think the boys understood, perhaps for the first time, that the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God are truly their foundational source of freedom. It was a wonderful experience to see in the eyes of those boys a new relationship between their “Scout Oath” and the freedoms provided to them by the Founding Fathers. Every new scout memorizes the Scout Oath which reads, “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong and morally straight.” Meaningful words that help a scout more fully comprehend his role as a citizen of his country.