I’ve used this Scoutmaster minute during our vespers sessions on camping trips. I asked everyone to bring a stick with them before they sat down around our campfire When they were seated I gathered all the sticks into a bundle and held them as I stood before the fire. “You’ll notice that none of the sticks complained as we collected them,” I said , “none of them tried to jump out of the bundle, none of the other sticks tried to shove the others away....
Most of us are familiar with and follow the principles of the Leave No Trace program while camping. Low impact Scouting has the potential for reducing our actual environmental impact but educating our Scouts on wise practices. Active Troops will spend 20-30 days and nights camping annually- for a Troop of 25 that’s the energy and trash for 2 to 3 thousand meals. If one disposable propane cannister cooks 20 meals the Troop will dispose of 100-150 each year....
Here are some excellent thoughts from the Scouting in Canada website: Boys leave Scouting because of what they don’t do on Troop night, not because of what they do. A wise Scout leader never raises his voice. He gets someone else to do the shouting, then addresses the troop in civilized, well modulated tones. Good commissioners never put off what they can get someone else to do today. If you believe strongly in yourself and what you are doing, you will find resources you never knew you had....
The United States Flag Code states the rules of flag etiquette, display, and handling.. Heartfelt respect and reverence cannot be compelled by law so the flag code is voluntary. There are penalties for knowingly desecrating the flag; but there is the question of free speech. In 1988 the Supreme Court upheld Texas v. Johnson that had determined burning the flag was a form of free speech.The 1990 “Flag Protection Act” imposed a federal ban on flag desecration....
“It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth....
Axe Handles One afternoon the last week in April Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet One-half turn and it sticks in a stump. He recalls the hatchet-head Without a handle, in the shop And go gets it, and wants it for his own A broken off axe handle behind the door Is long enough for a hatchet, We cut it to length and take it With the hatchet head...