Here is what I have pledged and held close to my heart all my life:
The Scout Oath: "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, mentally awake, and
morally straight."
The Scout Law: "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal,
helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean,
and reverent."
Retro, right? My Millennial daughter tells me that retro is
in (am I using that term right?) and that housewifery is in and the phrase
"women can have it all" is so old and so Boomerish. The cool kids are
now Republicans and the squares are Democrats. My wife and I are quite
Boomerish.
My daughter may be right. The bloviating from Trump's America makes
me feel quite squarish.
Still, I keep hearing that oath run through my head. And
this one, too, the one I uttered when I was sworn in as a U.S. Navy
midshipman:
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic,
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this
obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and
that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I
am about to enter; So help me God."
I was a lousy midshipman and never became an actual shipman.
Still, I took an oath and obey it. I am attuned these days to those who took
the oath and now ignore it. You know, enemies, foreign and domestic. But mostly
domestic.
2 comments:
Proud Boy Scout for 8 years. Loved our lone troop summer camp in Michigan. Learned to canoe and later became head of the Water Front tent on the lake. Proud to be the only one of 3 brothers to NOT become an Eagle Scout. Hey, I made it to Life and just kind of ran out of merit badges. Left the troop when my family moved to Kansas City in 1969.
Star, Life, Eagle -- I was a Star but just short of Life when I dropped out. All that moving around got me off track. But loads of fun and all that time outdoors, mostly in mountains but some time in the swamps.
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