I’m sure that there many of the people who defended the Capital were former Boy Scouts.
I’m also sure that many of those attacked the building also were former Boy Scouts.
I have zero evidence or proof of this. But – having been a Boy Scout and having worked for two summers at Camp Glen Gray, a Boy Scout camp in Oakland, NJ – and having interacted with many former Boy Scouts as an adult, I recognized both groups.
I know that the Boy Scouts of America -which was officially incorporated on February 8, 1910 – attracted many people who exemplify the organization’s core values of unselfish service, careful stewardship, and committed citizenship. In a way, that idealism is captured by today’s #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp issued on February 8, 1960 that was designed by Norman Rockwell.
But I also know that the Boy Scouts also attracted people who gave lip service to those values but really loved the petty militarism, faux patriotism, and fledgling authoritarianism that they could find and exploit in Scouting as well. These are the people responsible perpetrating most (if not all) of the about 100,000 reported claims of sexual abuse submitted by survivors last year when the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy.
Thinking about these conflicting aspects, made me wonder which presidents had either been Boy Scouts or Boy Scout leaders. Joe Biden once was a Boy Scout, as he recounted in a 2016 letter sent to young man who had recently become an Eagle Scout. That accomplishment, Biden wrote, “undoubtedly allowed you to learn many valuable life lessons, acquire numerous important skills, adopt guiding principles, and forge new and lasting friendships. I know this because I was once a Boy Scout.”
“To an Eagle Scout,” he added, “there is no limit to what can be achieved through earnest effort. I encourage you to always pursue ‘honor, loyalty, courage, and service” throughout your life. I know that these values along with the leadership skills you perfected while striving towards the rank of Eagle, will serve you in all your future endeavors.”
Donald Trump, on the other hand, was not a Boy Scout or a Boy Scout leader. He did speak to a national Boy Scout Jamboree, an event held every few years that attracts about tens of thousands of people. Not surprisingly, his speech didn’t really capture the best of Boy Scouting. Instead, he boasted about his 2016 electoral victory and explicitly criticized Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
He also went off on some odd tangents, noting, at one point, “As the Scout Law says: ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal’ – we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.” He also told a rambling story about the rise and fall developer William Levitt that ended, with Trump recalling that after Levitt’s demise, “I saw him at a cocktail party, and it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party.”
Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all were Cub Scouts but didn’t go on to join a Boy Scout Troop. Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush weren’t Boy Scouts. Neither was Richard Nixon.
All of the presidents before John F. Kennedy were too old to be Boy Scouts when the organization was formed in 1910. Several however, had more than passing involvement with the Scouts. Teddy Roosevelt served on the troop committee of Troop 39 in Oyster Bay. Two of Calvin Coolidge’s sons were Boy Scouts as was one of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s sons. Franklin Roosevelt not only served as president of the Greater New York Council for Scouts in New York City, he also played an important role in the purchase of the council’s Ten Mile River camp (where, if memory serves, I either camped or stayed when I was a Scout).
That leaves Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy, it turns out, was the first president who had been a Boy Scout, having been a member of Troop 2 in Bronxville, NY from 1929 to 1931. He rose to the rank of Star.
Somewhat surprisingly, Johnson had been a Boy Scout leader in Texas and helped organize an Explorer’s Post for boys working as Congressional pages.
Carter wasn’t a Boy Scout but, not surprisingly, as an adult he served as a troop committee chairman, Scoutmaster and Explorer Advisor.
That brings us to Gerald Ford, the only president who was an Eagle Scout and proud of it.
In remarks made to a national Boy Scouts award dinner in late 1974, he said, “it has recently been said that I am too much of a Boy Scout in the way I have conducted myself as President. So I reviewed the Boy Scout laws and Boy Scout oath.”
“They say that a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent,” said Ford, who added that his ability to rattle off that list wasn’t “bad for somebody who knew it 46 years ago.”
“The Boy Scout oath,” he added, “is, ‘On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout laws, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.'”
“If these are not the goals of the people of the United States, what they want their President to live up to, then I must draw this conclusion: Either you have the wrong man or I have the wrong country, and I don’t believe either is so.”
At their best, the Boy Scouts represent some of the best of America. At their worst, they exemplify some of the worst. I’m sure that a few former Boy Scouts are among the Senators who will vote on Donald Trumps’ impeachment, which starts tomorrow. I’m hoping that when they do, they will remember the lessons that people like Gerald Ford drew from that experience.
Be well, stay safe, be “trustworthy, loyal etc.” fight for justice, and work for peace.