The Troop 1954
Wednesday Newsletter

 

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Hi Folks,

Thanks to everyone who helped at last night's meeting and thanks to those who actually brought their equipment for Saturday.  It will make it easier for the folks packing the vehicles.

Well, we've had an excellent bunch of summer meetings.  We've had some really good energetic games, made progress building the trebuchet, and made progress teaching the younger scouts basic scouting skills.  This next week is, of course, summer camp in New Mexico.  I'm not sure if we've got a record turn-out but it must be close.  Seventeen of our scouts are going.  We hope that it's really a peak experience for them.  Truly, I wish I was going with them.

We'll be meeting intermittently for the rest of the summer.  As you'll see below, we only have two meetings before school begins in August: July 20 and August 3.  We'll resume our regular weekly meetings on August 17.

We're looking forward to an exciting fall schedule.  We'll be trying to focus more on getting all of the scouts working on merit badges (and getting our merit badge system really well in place).  We'll also be making further improvements to the Scout Shack including painting the outside of the building and doing something with the ceiling in the main meeting room.

One big event coming up soon is the August 21 Scout-O-Rama.  Stay tuned for more information about that.

The Wednesday Newsletter will not publish during July and the first half of August.  Expect the next edition on Wednesday August 18.  We will try to send out brief reminders of meetings and other events.

So, folks, have a fantastic summer and may we all remember to walk the walk.

As always, the Troop 1954 events calendar, this and all back newsletters,  and all sorts of other useful information is available on our website at www.sanmarcos1954.org

Attendance
Acting SPL Lee Clendennen presiding, assisted by acting ASPLs Josh Rose
   
Vicious Badgers   We need to work on patrol leadership and coaching for this group.  I'm badly in need of an adult member to commit to coaching these scouts.
Mason
Daniel
Tony
John
Thomas
David		  
 
Biohazards   Patrol Leader, Mason R-K.  Coached by Mr. Painton
Nathan
Philip
Mason
Justin		  
   
Crimson Fromage     Patrol Leader, Joshua Rose.  Coached by Dr. J.
Sean
Johnny
Josh
Ben
 
Highly Flammable Piffs     Patrol Leader, Dane Rasmussen.  Coached by Ms. Patty
Lee

 

Point System Scoring

Patrol

Attend.

Uniform

Behavior

Spirit

Meeting

6 Mo
V. Badgers           202
Biohazards           199
Fromage           177
Piffs           201
 

Behavior, subtract for each incident.

Fails to come to order when scout sign given -1
Fighting with each other -1 per incident
Bad language -1 per incident
Failure to treat others with respect -1
Asked repeatedly to do any task -1
Fails to clean up -1
Shows poor sportsmanship -1

Participation: Add for each, highest score is a five.

All members cooperate with game +1
Members make progress on meeting’s task +1
Members show enthusiasm for tasks +1
Members show good organization (listen to PL and Coach) +1
Members exemplify Scout Law +1

 


 

Announcements
 
1) Important information for Summer Camp:

We are planning to leave the Scout Hut at 4:30 AM on July 3.

Adults and campers should bring food for breakfast and snacks for the July 3 drive.

Due to rise in gas prices, campers should be sent with $30 additional spending money (as well as money required for merit badges).  Please send the $30 in $1s and $5s

2) Information for Summerfest:  Summerfest is the city's fourth of July celebration.  We've now been informed that the show will go on rain or shine on July 4th.  We have a booth reserved for Summerfest but we need volunteers, both youth and adult, to help operate the booth and funnel cake machine.  We realize that most scouts will be at summer camp, but if you're available to help on July 4, please let me know.  Please email me at r.warms@txstate.edu.

3) Last night concluded our weekly summer meetings.  We will be meeting July 20, August 3, and then, for a trip to Schlitterbahn on August 13th.  Regular weekly meetings resume August 17th.   We will also be looking for help at Wal-Mart on August 5-7 (see below).
 
Essay

Charlie Chaplin and the Fourth of July

In the film The Great Dictator, Chaplin plays the part of a Jewish Barber subject to the increasingly psychotic rule of Adenoid Hinkle, Dictator of Tomania (also played by Chaplin).  Of course, the film is a scathing commentary on the rise of Nazism.  The film's appearance in 1940, more than a year before the United States joined the war shows just how aware many people were of the true nature of German Fascism.

Chaplin, of course, was not a US citizen.  Though he lived and worked here for more than 40 years, he remained a British subject.

Partially because of what he says in the speech below, in the 1950s, Chaplin fell victim to the McCarthy purges and repressions of the early 1950s.  Rather than facing HUAC and the blacklist, Chaplin fled to exile in Switzerland, where he lived until his death in 1977.  The attempts by our government of fifty years ago to censor him makes what Chaplin had to say all the more meaningful for our national holiday.

At the end of The Great Dictator, the barber is mistaken for Hinkle and called on to give a speech to crowds of Tomanian soldiers and supporters.  This is what he says:

The Jewish Barber: Hope... I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written " the kingdom of God is within man " - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."
 
Upcoming Events

 

Troop 1954 Summer Camp, July 3 - July 11

We will be doing summer camp at Camp Dale Resler in the mountains of New Mexico.  This trip will also include visits to White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  It should be a great chance to get away from the summer heat of San Marcos and into the cool mountains of New Mexico.  It is also a fantastic chance for the scouts to make progress on advancement, have a great time, and bond more tightly as a group.

Summerfest, July 4

Assuming we don't get rained out, we'll be selling funnel cakes with our newly renovated funnel cake machine.  We'll need to firm up the schedule in the next week or two so please, if you're going to be in San Marcos, be prepared to make a time commitment.

Tax Free Weekend at Walmart: Funnel Cakes August 6,7.8

We've been able to get permission (thanks to Jennifer J.) to sell funnel cakes in front of Walmart all through the annual tax free weekend.  Of course, we don't know because we've never done it, but this has the potential to rival Sights and Sounds as a money earner.  We'll be looking for volunteers to take shifts as the dates get closer. 

Back to School Water Event, Friday August 13th

We're headed to Schlitterbahn for one last day of summer fun before the school year begins (kids boo parents cheer!).  We'd really like to encourage the kids to bring friends along on this one.  As always, we can use new members, especially among the older kids.

Scout-O-Rama, Saturday August 21

The Scout-O-Rama will be August 21st here in San Marcos at a little known and lightly used part of the San Marcos Park north of the ball fields at CM Allen and I-35. The Scout-O-Rama is a recruiting opportunity where people from all over the District will be invited to come and see what scouting is up to. As such, each Pack and Troop is being invited to attend and have an activity they will demonstrate to the attendees. Activities mentioned last night included: Troop-Cooking, Knot Tying, Hiking, etc. (food handler permit required if giving away food) Pack-Pine Wood Derby, Rain gutter Regatta, etc.  The District wants to have a list of participating units and activities they will demonstrate as soon as possible, but not later than 31 July. So, now is the time to start planning and identify an activity. Get our names in early and we can pretty much demonstrate anything we want.  If you have any questions, call Tom Heathman. Otherwise, Rex Hunt, District Commissioner and Steve Marlow, Event Chair, will be the points of contact for the event

Galveston Trip, September 10-12

We'll be headed to Galveston to enjoy the beach and the seafood and do work on the oceanography merit badge.  The trip will be led by Dr. J.