Tuesday, March 22, 2011

At a Crossroad

I have been a Boy Scout all my life. I joined when i was 8 yrs old, advanced through the ranks, became an Eagle Scout, joined a scouting related fraternity in college, volunteered my time as a childless adult leader, and naturally became a cub scout leader when my son was old enough to join.

My desire for him is and has been to experience the adventures that i had as a youth, see the things and visit the places I did as a youth, and earn his Eagle Scout badge as I did. I realize that the eras in which we each grew up are completely different as is the geographic setting. I grew up in a small town in the Ozarks where the sidewalks rolled up at 6pm every night and everyone in town knew your name, your parents and business.

My son grows up in a large urban area where we all live in our own little microcosm of the community, venturing out into the big city for special events. But the fact that there is 24 hour options in everything is worlds apart from my upbringing.

I have urged my son to stay in scout, earn Eagle Scout and then if he feels that it is still not fun or cool, then he can stop going. I have fought hard to keep the activities in the troop fun, educational, and active. This despite the fact that i am only an asst leader and the actual scoutmaster if an idiot of the first order. On top of fighting his imbecilic management of the troop, my son has also had to put up with the total lack of youth leadership in the troop. First from the scoutmasters equally idiotic son and then from another youth who, well lets just say he is a few bubbles from plumb.

In December the adults of the scouts got together and made a conscience decision to begin the process of disbanding the troop and merging it into another, in hopes of finding older scouts to mentor our boys and provide them with the type of program that we all remembered and want for our sons.

We researched area troops, paid visit to them to evaluate their programs, and to determine which would be the best fit for our boys. We came to a decision and as we were about to pull the trigger on things, something happened which we haven't quite gotten to the bottom of yet.

At about the same time as all this was happening, some new boys started coming to our meetings with their parents. Reportedly, they said their troop leader was leaving, they weren't happy with the new direction of their troop, and were looking for a smaller more active troop to join. We were open with them about our intentions and plans and they gave every indication that they were OK with our decision.

Fast forward to last week. At a meeting of the adults, it came to be that the idiot scoutmaster and his son had politicked the new folks into recruiting more people from the same troop to come over and the decision was made not to dissolve the troop. OK.. i get democracy. Majority rules and i was willing to go along with it as along as they could prove to me that their wasn't some hidden agenda or motive driving them.

On Saturday, they effectively took over the leadership of the troop, voting in their boys into every leadership position available and leaving our boys to take up the scraps and the pass-overs.

I have spend the last 6 years of mine and my sons life devoting my time and energy to this pack and troop, giving it my all. Now to be caste aside like we are no longer needed is just too much to put up with. I am angry, and I will have my revenge.

So I ask you dear readers. You know me, I don't pull any punches or sugar-coat anything.

  1. Do i resign from the troop, along with my son, and keep my thoughts and opinions to myself and let them fester and die the slow death that i know they will?
  2. Do i resign from the troop along with my son and go out in a blaze of glory, calling them out on their shit and making it known to all who will listen that they are conniving POSs that can not be trusted?
  3. Do resign from the troop along with my son and stealthily, work to destroy what they have tried to build?

Let me know your thoughts.