SOMETHING YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID

Just a few days after 4 Scout leaders were electrocuted when their tent pole came in contact with power lines, more trouble at the National Boy Scout Jamboree...

"BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) - The star-crossed National Scout Jamboree started anew Thursday, one day after more than 300 people succumbed to the blistering heat while awaiting a visit from President Bush.

More than 300 Scouts and visitors were treated Wednesday at the hospital at Fort A.P. Hill, the Army base hosting the event, and some were airlifted to surrounding hospitals with heat-related illnesses."

Seriously, is it really worth all of this to trade some patches?

Now, I was a Boy Scout. I was a "Senior Patrol Leader," I learned my CPR, I got to the rank just below Eagle (but just couldn't seem to make that final push). Most of my Scouting memories are of baby sitting the younger scouts, who were about as hyperactive and ill behaved as you could imagine. I hated camp (getting up at 7am to jump in a cold lake - required by our Scout "Master" - didn't sit too well, even if I did get a Polar Bear Neckerchief Slide at the end of the week). The Jamborees weren't really my thing. I liked being out in the woods, but I grew up in the country and camped in the woods behind my house regularly. I definitely liked starting (camp)fires. Why did I have to wear a uniform and march around to do stuff I already did? OK, some of the knots have come in handy, particularly the Sheep Shank, and I still have the compass (somewhere).

I think the Boy Scouts of America, with its intolerance and religious and paramilitary connections, is more than a little suspect (and I don't mean this as a slight against the men and women serving in our armed forces). The fact that 300 of 'em passed out waiting for GW just confirms that God, in His infinite wisdom, agrees.