Several years ago, my oldest son, then a teen-ager, was detained at a mall on suspicion of stealing a wallet the previous Saturday. When questioned about the theft, my son responded, "I'm a Boy Scout. I would never steal."
While he may have resembled the actual thief, my son had been far from the mall at the time the wallet was taken.
My son first learned about the Scouts when he was seven years old. A few months after he turned eight, he joined a local Cub Scout pack. Since that day, he has never wavered from scouting.
Despite a profound hearing loss and a reading disability, he realized his dream of becoming an Eagle Scout -- perhaps the only deaf person to achieve that rank in a hearing troop in the Baltimore Area Council. He has since served as an assistant scoutmaster in his troop. A few years ago, he traveled to Denmark to volunteer for seven weeks at a Boy Scout camp.
My son tries his best to keep the Scout oath and the Scout law. In doing so, to my knowledge he has never discriminated against anyone. He and I have had discussions about allowing admitted homosexuals to be in leadership positions in the Scouts. We share the position that a person's sexual orientation doesn't matter as much as that person's character and humanity.
Whenever this issue reaches the status of a newspaper headline, I can't help but compare the actions of two adult Eagle Scouts our family has known.
One was a colleague of my husband's. The other was the scoutmaster at the time my son was completing his requirements for Eagle Scout.
Justin worked with my husband and also volunteered in a program serving the needy. When my in-laws sold their home in Massachusetts so they could move to upstate New York and live next to my sister-in-law and her family, my husband wanted to drive there and retrieve some items his parents no longer wanted. Justin cheerfully agreed to drive to Massachusetts with him and help bring the items back to Maryland.
One autumn, Justin invited us (and others) to come to his home and gather apples from the large apple tree in his backyard. We were only too happy to oblige.
Whenever I was around Justin, I always felt comfortable. He was a caring person who lived the words of the Scout oath: To help other people at all times. And he modeled many of the tenets of the Scout law: he was trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, kind, courteous, cheerful, reverent, thrifty, brave, clean and obedient.
