For the Council President's comments at Thursday's BoyPower dinner Bob Confer gave a speech about the importance of Scouting in
today's world and how it brings confidence to children and teens who
sorely need it. He converted that speech into a newspaper column that
will run in this week's papers in Lockport and Niagara Falls. Here's the
column:
SCOUTING BRINGS CONFIDENCE TO YOUNG MEN
If you
know someone in their 20s or 30s, you’ve no doubt heard them ask if they
should bring a child into this world. They say that because these are
some heady times and today’s youth are bombarded with so much and they
face so many obstacles and dangers.
This has led to something
that I would call a “confidence crisis”, not only for those potential
parents, but especially for those they beget. Children and teens are
increasingly lacking in confidence in themselves and the world around
them.
Today’s kids don’t have confidence in their families. Not
only is the divorce rate still pretty high, but too many women are left
to raise children on their own as so-called “dads” abandon them, and
their interaction is limited to an occasional child support check, if
anything at all.
Today’s youths don’t have confidence in their
futures --- they saw their parents stung by the Great Recession and they
see an economy that’s still a little wobbly, offering them little hope
for tomorrow.
They don’t have confidence in their safety.
School shootings, terror attacks and random acts of brutal violence
dominate the news cycle, and have changed the way they live in and move
about this country.
They don’t have confidence in the leadership
of our country. They see grown men and women who want to lead us
attacking one another and presenting very few legitimate options to
better our United States.
And, they don’t have confidence in
themselves. The Age of the Internet and the destruction of good old
fashioned real human-to-human interaction have eroded emotion and
empathy, leading to bullying and abuse and the image issues that come
with that.
So, what is a modern parent to do?
How do you overcome these crises?
How do you instill confidence in children?
The answer to all of these questions is one word: Scouting.
The Boy Scouts of America have always given -- and will always give ---
the boys and young men of this country the tools they need to succeed
and the tools that America needs to succeed.
Take, for instance,
the fatherless boys I had mentioned. In Scouting, their scoutmasters
become their de facto fathers, bringing masculinity, strong fraternal
support, paternal love, and important life lessons from a male
perspective that those boys so desperately need.
Or, consider the
boys who worry about their careers. Scouting and its myriad merit
badges intimately introduce boys to career paths that they wouldn’t get
proper exposure to elsewhere --- be it STEM, the trades, the arts, or
business, these courses and the scouts’ efforts prepare them for the
Real World and set them on paths to success in adulthood.
Think of the boys who worry about the world’s safety. Scouting give them
the abilities they need to combat the world’s evils – they are trained
in first aid, they are versed in discipline, uniformity and chain of
command. Think of how many teenage scouts save lives every year ---
think of how scouts go on to become first responders, police, and
members of our armed forces.
And what of those boys who see
poorly led communities, states, and countries or a glut of bullying and
other abuses in their schools? By learning good citizenship and
community-mindedness in Scouting -- and getting out and doing things for
people in need -- they are groomed to be character-driven leaders of
governments, schools, businesses and churches. Our future is in great
hands when the Scouts take over.
All of this, and so much more,
gives the boys the confidence they need to be mature, overcome all the
wrongs in their lives and this world, to make their lives better and to
make everyone else’s lives better.
Boy Scouts transforms boys into men. Real men.
No other youth-based organization can claim that with such vigor….with such confidence.
So, if you worry about your son or grandson and what the world holds
for them, don’t. Enroll him in Scouting. It will markedly improve his
ability to handle the bad and the good that might be thrown at him. It
will give him the confidence to succeed in everything he does.
