To The Reader’s Forum:

Thank you for your heartfelt letter over the demise of the Boy Scouts of America (let’s not forget the Girl Scouts of America). I agree with you over the good moral issues and your dislike over the current fads against neatness and respect in the youth — not necessarily limited to boys/men. My own sons learned to remove their cover in the presence of a lady in the Navy. That is a small gesture toward respect but what si one lump of sugar in your coffee? It sure makes it sweeter.

I agree there is a need for morals and learning to take place in scouting — both boys and girls. I believe they should be afforded separation for those tender years but that apparently is not a popular belief at present. It takes time to mature respectfully and space. There are plenty of mixers (to use past terminology for getting boys and girls/men and women together). Later in life there is finishing school, college, military, trade school or Tim Hortons. The manifest effect of college is education to learn to support one’s self and his/her future family unit. The latent effect is to get the mixers going!

I myself was a den mother and I am still proud to say, and I spent a wonderful week at Camp Merz with my scouts. Mothers and fathers are needed in leadership as good examples! They are also to set things straight when the boundaries of self respect are encroached upon as they always are. Testing from children is necessary for their proper growth. Pushing boundaries helps them learn right and good from wrong and unhealthy. It takes skill on the part of the leaders who all come with their different backgrounds and bags of leadership skills and time limits, etc.

Be active with your children in these programs. They need their parents to help them steer their Pinewood Derby cars through life. Toys are learning devices. Play with the toys and respect the human package God delivered each of us into!

Jody I. Booth Terhune,

Jamestown