[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[HOU]
[Pages 14473-14476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2320
           CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for half the remaining time to midnight.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate my friends from Georgia and 
the wonderful contributions that they have made to enlightenment with 
regard to these issues.
  There is an issue that we want to recognize and take up tonight, and 
it's a wonderful topic, the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of 
America here in the United States.
  The Boy Scouts of America were incorporated on February 8, 1910 and 
chartered by Congress in 1916. The mission statement of Boy Scouts was 
to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their 
lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the scout oath and the 
scout law.
  It's interesting, doctors say that often our short-term memory is the 
first to go and our long-term memory seems to last longer, but I still 
do recall the scout law, that a scout is supposed to be trustworthy, 
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, 
brave, clean and reverent. Those are good things to live by. The Boy 
Scouts have continued to live by that and produced incredible Americans 
over the years.
  Right now we celebrate this fact because there is the National 2010 
Boy Scout Jamboree going on at AP Hill--not terribly far from here--and 
so we've had thousands of Boy Scout visitors come through Washington, 
come through the Capitol. It's been an honor to take many through the 
Capitol and through this area, and we have many more coming. I know my 
district has 85 in one group that will be coming through on August 4 
when they leave the AP Hill area and others have been helping as staff 
members.
  But the jamboree is worth noting. There are 45,000 attendees that 
will include 37,000 Boy Scouts from all 50 States, 8,000 scout leaders 
and staff. A whopping 275,000 visitors will join the celebration over 
the course of 10 days to partake in the festivities. This 76,000-acre 
area has been hosting the National Scout Jamboree since 1981. The Boy 
Scouts use approximately 3,000 acres of this land to support a city of 
over 50,000 inhabitants.
  One of my daughters asked years back, after having found out that one 
of the parents of one of her friends had been at Woodstock, asked me, 
Daddy, did you go to Woodstock, she said. I said, Well, no I didn't. 
She said, Do you remember where you were during Woodstock? I said, I 
certainly do. Well, where were you? I was outside of Coeur d'Alene, 
Idaho, at the 1969 National Boy Scout Jamboree. And we had rest rooms 
that worked, we didn't commit immoral acts, we didn't have illegal 
drugs, and we didn't need the National Guard to come in and rescue us 
from ourselves as happened at Woodstock. Today there are those who are 
proud to proclaim that they had the morals of Woodstock--some continue 
to, they continue to attack the Boy Scouts.
  Of course we know the Speaker and 10 other people had pointed out in 
2000 that the Boy Scouts had an ``intolerant policy'' of excluding 
people who practice homosexuality from leadership, so they were 
demanding that President Clinton step down as honorary chairman. He did 
not do that. And President Obama right now is Honorary Chair of the Boy 
Scouts of America and has spoken to them by video, and I know the 
scouts appreciate that.
  Scouting has meant so much to so many. It prepares you for the 
future. It prepares you to save lives. I never thought I would have an 
opportunity to use any CPR training that I had gotten through all my 
years as a Boy Scout, going up to becoming an Eagle Scout; but when the 
day occurs, there is no substitute for having been through that. I get 
a big hug from a dear friend at church every time and he says, This is 
the guy that saved my life. Actually, it was the Boy Scouts that did it 
through all those years of training.
  I've been joined by a dear friend, also a Boy Scout--I believe an 
Eagle Scout as well--and I would certainly be glad to yield to a fellow 
Eagle Scout.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Well, I appreciate being yielded to by 
a fellow Eagle Scout.
  It truly is an honor and a privilege to be here this evening to 
recognize an organization that has for 100 years, for an entire 
century, served this Nation through serving the youth. It is just a 
remarkable organization.
  This is actually my 40th year in scouting, and so I've had tremendous 
opportunity to be able to see how scouting touches the lives of boys 
and girls. We think scouting today is the Boy Scouts of America, but 
frankly the Venture Scouts is a coed organization, and the Boy Scouts 
make a tremendous difference in the lives of boys and girls.
  I have with me today actually the 12th printing of the Boy Scout 
Handbook, which is a handbook that is just a fascinating read. For 100 
years, 12 editions, this has been printed, and the basics are still the 
same. Like my good friend from Texas talked about, he named those 12 
parts of the scout law. The principles of citizenship are here, of 
character, of the scout motto, ``Be prepared,'' the scout slogan, ``Do 
a good turn daily,'' and the principles that are found within the scout 
oath.
  This 12th edition, since 1910 there have been 39,470,000 handbooks 
printed. What a legacy in terms of service. And I want to take from it 
just a couple of quotes. First of all, the vision statement for the Boy 
Scouts of America. And this is a vision that is just as solid today in 
terms of serving youth--and I think our Nation--as it was in 1910 when 
a Chicago businessman, William D. Boyce, was traveling to London, 
England and was out on a foggy evening.
  He was looking for a business address, and he was absolutely lost in 
the fog, as the story goes. And as he was bewildered and wandering 
aimlessly, he was approached by a young youth from England who 
volunteered his services, not just to point this American businessman 
in the right direction, but to actually physically take him to that 
location. This boy went out of his way to serve him--to provide a good 
turn, so to speak. At the end of that, the businessman wanted to reward 
the lad.
  I suppose he reached into his pocket to offer him a coin and the 
young boy said, sir, I can't take that, I'm a scout, and we provide 
that kind of service. This was a good turn. That so impressed Mr. Boyce 
that he came back to this country, got together with some other leaders 
within this Nation, and soon gave birth to the Boy Scouts of America 
100 years ago, all from the selfless service and good acts of one young 
person. And today, scouting continues to make differences one good turn 
at a time.
  I would like to share with you the vision which really stands as true 
today as it has been. This is the vision statement: ``The Boy Scouts of 
America will

[[Page 14474]]

prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, 
participating citizen and leader who is guided by the scout oath and 
the scout law.'' I mean, what a great vision, a vision that continues 
to guide an organization that serves our youth.
  I want to share and also quote because my good friend from Texas 
reflected on our President and past President related to scouting. This 
is another President who also was an Eagle Scout. This was former 
President Gerald Ford, who was an Eagle Scout and the 38th President of 
the United States of America. And President Ford was quoted: ``I can 
say without hesitation that because of scouting principles I know I was 
a better athlete, I was a better naval officer, I was a better 
Congressman, and I was a better prepared President.'' And so obviously 
President Ford recognized the value of scouting in his life.

                              {time}  2330

  Mr. GOHMERT. If the gentleman will yield back for a moment, I owed 
the Army 4 years from an Army scholarship to Texas A&M.
  From the years of being a Boy Scout, I was good at orienteering, 
which is the process of taking a map and a compass and finding your way 
from point A to point B and getting back. Those were things that were 
important to know when you were in the Army. There is no question that 
I was quite good at it in the Army because I'd had fantastic training 
in the Boy Scouts. It was the same way when learning to fire a .22 out 
on the range as a very young Boy Scout. The first day was the camping, 
the cooking. It was all about this planet and the things that occupy 
the planet--this amazing creation that God provided to us, which we 
learned and studied and had to spend a great deal of time becoming so 
acquainted with as Boy Scouts.
  It may seem silly, but when my wife and I were helping with some 
decorations before a big dance there in Tyler, there were some ladies 
on a big scissor lift, helping put up heavy 10-, 15-pound decorations 
to suspend from the ceiling. They had a 50-pound fishing line, but they 
couldn't get any knot to hold to keep those things up.
  So they yelled down, Does anybody know of a knot that would hold?
  Well, I was an Eagle Scout. Of course I do. So they brought the 
scissor lift down. I got on. I got somebody to come up and help.
  I would yield to my friend: If you had somebody yelling, ``Does 
anybody know a knot that would hold?'' what would my friend seek to 
use?
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Oh, there are a couple that come to 
mind. I'd probably start with a bowline, though.
  Mr. GOHMERT. That's exactly what I did, a bowline, and that thing 
doesn't give. You can even do it with one hand.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. That's right.
  Mr. GOHMERT. They made you learn to do it with one hand. In case you 
were hanging from a rope on a mountainside, you could reach up with the 
other hand and tie that bow and be able to suspend yourself, just 
hanging with the rope, without having to hold on for dear life. So 
there are amazing things you learn in the Army--from the stars to Morse 
code. I don't remember that so well anymore, but what phenomenal 
training.
  One of the facts we have indicates that, in 2009, Boy Scouting 
recognized their 2 millionth Eagle Scout. We know that the Eagle Scouts 
are only a tiny percentage of all of those who actually go into 
Scouting and who benefit from Scouting. So that's quite an 
accomplishment. There are 2 million Eagle Scouts in the Boy Scout 
program.
  Another thing that is worth noting is, when you see a Boy Scout get 
to be a Tenderfoot and as you work your way up to Second Class, First 
Class, Star, Life, and Eagle, you don't attain those badges, those 
accomplishments, by representing only yourself. No Boy Scout ever has 
or ever will. It represents the millions of people who have helped 
Scouting over the years.
  In my case, my parents were so encouraging, and my mother was 
actually more than encouraging. She was downright pushy--my late 
mother, rest her soul. My Scoutmaster--rest his soul, Sam Parker--had 
more influence on my life than any man besides my father, I think. I've 
had such wonderful men and women help teach and encourage me; but my 
Scoutmaster, who was also an American history teacher, instilled just a 
love of American history and of America's greatness, not because 
America just all of a sudden appeared and did these things, but because 
it was blessed by God. Those things are in the Scout Oath.
  My daughter Katie prepared a collage some years back, and it had all 
kinds of things on there from the music I liked to different things I'd 
accomplished. There was high school football and all of these different 
things that were pasted, and there were slogans and things. Well, right 
in the middle, on a small piece of paper--in the center of everything 
and with all the other things emanating out from it--was the Boy 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.''
  When I saw that and saw that that was the centerpiece of everything, 
I asked, ``Sweetheart, do you think of me as a Boy Scout?''
  She said, ``Daddy, you'll always be a Boy Scout.''
  I take that as quite a compliment, as I know my friend Mr. Thompson, 
likewise, is proud of the accomplishment.
  One other thing before I yield to my friend about becoming an Eagle 
Scout: The people in my hometown who contributed, the churches and 
businesses that helped make our Scout troop a success and the 
volunteers who worked and made it go and who gave us that opportunity 
deserve such accolades for what they did and for the difference they 
made in all of our lives as boys.
  When it came time for the Eagle Court of Honor, which is where I 
received my Eagle Award, I was the oldest of three boys. I have another 
sister who is older, and I just lost my younger brother a few months 
ago. We each, in turn, became Eagle Scouts. After my mother passed away 
in 1991, we were looking through her jewelry box. She had some jewelry 
pieces that were very nice; but in a small area, she had the most 
valuable pieces of jewelry she'd ever owned. There was a ring that had 
some rubies and diamonds on it. There was a gold nugget necklace, which 
had real gold nuggets. Then there were the three Eagle Pins that Eagles 
pin on their mothers at the time they're awarded the Eagle. It made it 
pretty clear that, not just for me but in my mother's life, her boys--
all three--becoming Eagle Scouts was one of the most treasured things 
that she had.
  I yield to my friend, Mr. Thompson.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Well, I thank my good friend.
  You know, I think the statistic is one out of every three persons has 
had some experience with Scouting, with Boy Scouting. They've been Boy 
Scouts or they've been parents of a Scout or they've had a sibling 
who's a Scout. There is a connection there. I know, for those who have 
been in Scouting for just a few years, what a difference it makes.
  One of the hardest things I had to do 19 months ago when I was sworn 
into Congress was, 3 days before that, I had to retire as Scoutmaster. 
I wasn't going to be home for the meetings. Certainly, when I am home 
on weekends, I wish I could go on camp-outs. It doesn't happen in this 
job, just the demands of it. I served as a Scoutmaster for 30 years and 
saw literally dozens of boys earn their Eagle Scout Awards. You know, 
that's what they do. In the 100 years of Scouting in this country, 
there has never been one Eagle Award given away. They've all been 
earned--each one.

                              {time}  2340

  And to have three sons that are Eagle Scouts and who frankly, went on 
to--I've seen how that has made a difference in their lives.
  And it has just been, you know, my home troop of Howard, 
Pennsylvania, Troop 353 is a great troop, and it's a family experience, 
too, in scouting. It

[[Page 14475]]

makes families stronger. There's just a role. It's not just for the 
youth. It's families. Moms and dads get involved and extended families 
get involved.
  And I think back very fondly to my years, from age 11 to 18, as a 
youth in scouting, Walker Township Troop 52, where--and my scoutmaster. 
Actually, I just talked with my scoutmaster. He'll always be my 
scoutmaster, even though I'm 51 now.
  I talked with him just a few days ago, Harold Yearick, and Ray Lahr, 
who was assistant scoutmaster and also scoutmaster during that time. 
Those were men that just, you know, the values that I learned from them 
they demonstrated in their actions of duty to God and duty to country 
and duty to others and duty to self.
  And so, to this day, those are principles I use when I make decisions 
in Congress. I ask myself those four questions. Is the decision I'm 
making, what about my duty to God. Is it righteous according to God's 
word?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Perriello). The gentleman is recognized 
for an additional 20 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I yield again to my friend 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Thank you.
  Duty to country. The decision I'm going to make, is it according to 
the Constitution?
  Duty to others. Is the decision I'm going to make as a Member of 
Congress today in this job, you know, how does is it impact the people 
that I work for? What are the intended consequences? What are the 
unintended consequences?
  And, frankly, duty to self. Am I prepared to do my best?
  Those are values that--I learned those starting when I was age 11.
  One of the most important things that probably happened in my life 
was that I had a foster brother come live with my family at age 11. And 
when Mom and Dad brought Bob into our home, they had made a promise to 
him that he could continue in the scouting program--he was a couple 
years older than I--that he had been attending in a neighboring valley. 
And, frankly, as a younger brother, I got to tag along. And I'd have to 
say that was probably one of the most important things that ever 
happened to me. I'm so thankful for that opportunity, and it has just 
made just a tremendous difference in my life.
  I want to share just from 2009, in terms of the service to the Nation 
of scouting. What has scouting been?
  And just most recently, we're celebrating 100 years. But just this 
past year, there has been 1,634,715 boys, ages 7 to 10, in Cub Scouts 
in this Nation. What a number. Amazing.
  Of boys 11 to 17, so that would be Boy Scout age or what we call 
Varsity Scouts, a parallel program, 897,868 boys involved in that 
program.
  And then you go ages 14 to 20. This is the coed program that we have 
in scouting today. This is young men and young women, ages 14 to 20. 
They're Adventurers or Sea Scouts; 257,361 of those young folks.
  We have over 800,000, almost 850,000 boys and girls in elementary 
through high school in what's called Learning for Life Character 
Education programs in this country.
  And then finally, over 120,000 young men and women ages 14 to 20 in 
exploring career-based programs. I think that's an important part of 
scouting. I've seen that. I still call them boys, but they are adults 
today that I remember vividly when they were 11 years old, came into my 
scout room. But today they're grown, they're married, they have 
children of their own who are actually in scouting, many of them.
  And, you know, I saw their career paths take shape through the 
scouting program, whether it was involved in a high adventure program 
that we might have done, a camping program, or more than likely through 
one of the merit badge programs where they learned a specific skill. 
And as a result of that exposure and that experience in the scouting 
program, they picked a career path, and it's a passion that they 
pursued. And, frankly, scouting opened that door for them and so just 
creates all kinds of great opportunities.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Well, to follow up on some of the numbers that my 
friend, Mr. Thompson, was quoting:
  Total youth served in the hundred years of scouting here in the 
United States, 114,304,329; adult volunteers, 33,364,261; total number 
of merit badges, over 117 million. And those merit badges don't just 
represent little pieces of fabric with stitching on them. They 
represent a great deal of work, skills attained, knowledge attained, 
things that will help throughout life in the issues that come in the 
future.
  Now, I do feel we need to touch on this briefly because Boy Scouting 
has been under attack. There have been groups that have been trying to 
eliminate and have successfully eliminated, like in San Francisco. For 
years, there have been efforts to restrict scouting from enjoying the 
parks that other groups might enjoy. There are efforts in Congress on a 
regular basis to try to hurt the scouting effort. And it all boils down 
to this one thing about scouting.
  Despite the oath that scouts take, the Scout Law, scouting has chosen 
to stay faithful to religious tenets that man represented as the only 
full face of all the greatest lawgivers in this room. Every one of them 
has a side profile except the one in the middle who's considered to be 
the greatest lawgiver of all time. That's Moses. And one of the laws 
that Moses said were given to him that he gave was thou shalt not 
commit adultery. In other words, you shall not have sex, sexual 
relations, outside the marriage of a man and a woman.
  Scouting, through all these years, has chosen to honor that 
Commandment, honor the Ten Commandments in all it did. And obviously, 
all sin, all fail, fall short, but scouting, at least, has tried to 
exemplify the best of humanity that most of us in this country believe 
come out when we try to live by those Ten Commandments.
  So scouting has upheld that they preferred adult leaders who were not 
open adulterers. And I know, in our society today, so many believe that 
it's no big deal, there's nothing wrong with it. Adultery is no big 
deal, regardless of the sexual gender of the people participating. It's 
just fine.
  Boy Scouting has chosen to say, we believe the Commandments given by 
Moses that he believed and we believe came to him from God are worth 
observing and trying to follow. Scouting has and, ironically, it has 
produced such great ire among so many who now want to kill the program 
because Boy Scouts say, We just believe those Ten Commandments are a 
good thing, including that one about adultery, not having sexual 
relations outside of marriage between a man and a woman.
  And as a result, there's a number of corporate sponsors who used to 
give huge sums, six, seven figures even, to the Boy Scouts to assist 
them, who've chosen to say that because Boy Scouts have persisted in 
believing that avoiding adultery is a good thing, then they're not 
going to help the Boy Scouts.

                              {time}  2350

  And in the process, they have robbed so many, many minorities, people 
who would love to be Scouts. And I know in our east Texas area there 
are so many young minorities without fathers who we've met with and 
talked with and talked to their moms about starting Scout troops. And 
they're so excited. And some have started, and it's such a help. And it 
would be so wonderful if those corporate sponsors were not blaming 
Scouts for thinking the Ten Commandments were a good thing, and 
therefore withholding contributions, choosing to give them to groups 
who think that just blatantly violating the Ten Commandments are the 
best thing that we could do in America.
  So they're giving to those who demean those who think morality is a 
good thing and in the process hurting so many who could be Eagle 
Scouts, who could be great Scouts. But the contributions are dropping, 
and the involvement has been dropping some.
  I think that we're seeing things turn in this Nation in such a way 
that we're going to have a reawakening, we're going to have a great 
awakening, and people are going to come back to the fact that the real 
truth is this Nation

[[Page 14476]]

has been blessed by God because this Nation has lived up to the blessed 
tenets that God said to live by. And as we return to those--certainly 
don't want to give up on the progress that this, the greatest Nation in 
the history of mankind has made. But in the moral area, where we've 
fallen apart and Boy Scouting has stayed so steadfast, I think we'll 
see people come back to the basics on morality, and we'll see even 
greater accomplishments.
  And so it should be observed that 50 percent of all the NASA 
astronauts were Boy Scouts. More than 30 percent of all graduates from 
the military, Air Force, and naval academies were involved in Scouting 
in their youth, and five of our Presidents have been Boy Scouts. And 
even within this Congress, 199 of our current Members once participated 
in Scouting. And 22 in Congress, are, as my friend G.T. and I, Eagle 
Scouts. I had somebody try and say I was a former Eagle Scout. But it's 
kind of like being an Aggie: once you are, you are for the rest of your 
life.
  And so that's why in my district office something wonderful my wife 
did, I believe it was Father's Day, she had a shadow box, unknown to 
me, put together with my Eagle award and so many of the things I traded 
for and had earned during my time in Scouting in that shadow box. And I 
am so proud of that. That's in my office back in east Texas.
  But Scouting has done so much to contribute not merely to making boys 
far better than they could have been otherwise, but by making this 
Nation so much greater than it ever would have been without Boy Scouts 
of America.
  I yield to my friend Mr. Thompson.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I thank you for yielding.
  I want to take a moment to talk about an important key member of the 
Scouting team, and that is sponsoring organizations, from all over. 
Every Scouting unit has a community partner called a sponsoring 
organization. And they are churches, fire departments, Lions clubs, 
Rotary, Salvation Army. I mean, there are just an endless list of 
organizations who step forward. In becoming a partner, they sponsor 
these Scouting units.
  And it seems fitting, as we pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of 
Scouting, to say ``thank you'' to those community partners. They play 
such an important role in making sure that the units, the Scouting 
units have qualified leadership, that they usually provide a place for 
them to meet, they provide them the support they need to have within 
the community. So ``thank you'' to certainly our sponsoring 
organizations within Scouting.
  And, finally, just touch on the things that Scouting provides in a 
real tangible way to our communities, because they are a central part 
of our community, our Scouting units. It's called the National Good 
Turn Project. It started in February of 2004, and it began to track all 
the things that we knew Scouting has done for a hundred years of the 
amount of hours of community service. I remember washing a lot of fire 
trucks when I was 11 years old. Only later did I find out my 
Scoutmaster was fire chief. But that was good training for community 
service.
  And we went on to do litter pickups and do all kinds of community 
service. Well, we never tracked that prior to 2004. But February 2004 
we began to start to keep track. You know, since February 2004 Scouting 
has provided 8.5 million hours of community service in this country. 
That's what's documented. I am sure there's stuff that didn't get 
documented.
  And, finally, the Eagle Scout projects this past year totaled just in 
service what calculates to be $47 million of community service, of 
providing and reaching out to the community. So I am just real proud to 
be here this evening to join my good friend and fellow Eagle Scout to 
pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of Scouting and also to wish a 
safe and enjoyable and fun Scouting experience at Fort A.P. Hill for 
the tens of thousands of Scouts that are gathered from all over this 
Nation just about an hour south of our Capitol. And thank you for being 
with me tonight.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you. I would ask my friend to stay with me one 
more moment as we have been paying tribute to Boy Scouts of America, 
the organization, what they've done. I know that as an Eagle Scout, as 
a Scoutmaster, my friend, Mr. Thompson has many Courts of Honor stood 
and asked all of those Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts to stand and say the 
scout oath together. I wondered if my friend might join me, as I yield 
time to him, as we might conclude tonight.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I would be honored. I think that's a 
fitting tribute and way to do that.
  Mr. GOHMERT. That's what went through my mind.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. All right. Here we go.
  Mr. GOHMERT. 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. Two.

                          ____________________